Partium | The Blog about Enterprise Part Search

AI as a Game-Changer in Parts Identification: Real-World Success Stories from the Field

Written by Christina Angerer | Oct 24, 2024 9:46:59 AM

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often hailed as a transformative technology, but what does it truly mean for industries like manufacturing, logistics, or field services that depend on fast, precise parts identification? While much of the conversation around AI tends to be theoretical, at Partium, AI is far more than a buzzword.

In this blog post, we’ll highlight real-world examples from some of our exceptional customers, showcasing how they’ve achieved significant, tangible improvements in managing spare parts. Read on to discover how AI is helping B2B industries reduce downtime, enhance operational efficiency, and revolutionize their spare parts management workflows.

Let’s explore how AI is genuinely changing the game:

Deutsche Bahn (DB)

Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn (DB), was in search of a digital, mobile solution to streamline parts identification, aiming to reduce the average search time from 15–20 minutes to just a few seconds. Today, Partium is a standard in DB’s repair and maintenance environments, used by over 10,000 technicians. This has resulted in saving an incredible 16,800 person-days annually that were previously spent searching for spare parts.

ÖBB (Austrian Railways)

Inspired by Partium’s success at DB, Austria’s national railway company, ÖBB, sought to enhance its efficiency and expand service capabilities. With challenges like lengthy search times, an aging workforce, and an increasing volume of materials, ÖBB integrated Partium into their operations. Currently, around 800 ÖBB technicians leverage Partium’s capabilities, and given the positive reception, plans for further rollouts are already in motion.

Wien Energie (Vienna Energy)

Austria’s largest energy provider aimed to cut inventory costs by consolidating its numerous warehouses into one central facility. Previously, technicians could physically inspect spare parts, but after consolidation, they needed to know exactly what to order from the supply chain team. With Partium, Wien Energie technicians can now search and find parts within seconds without needing to physically view them. Today, 220 employees in "Maintenance & Logistics" and 280 in "Renewable Energies" have significantly reduced time spent searching for parts.

Georg Fischer (GF) Machining Solutions

Operating in over 50 countries, GF Machining Solutions faced the challenge of managing heterogeneous data, tools, and processes across its global locations. Partium’s multi-language support and ability to harmonize diverse systems into one central platform proved invaluable.

GF Machining Solutions rolled out Partium to 773 internal users across 15 countries in just two months, and it is now live in 24 countries. By streamlining communication between field service engineers and customer service agents, GF is saving time and improving customer experience.

ENGEL

With rising demand for ENGEL machines and an increase in customer service interactions, the company wanted to reduce time spent searching for parts and focus more on converting inquiries into sales. Partium’s Agent Portal proved to be a game-changer, allowing customer service agents to access user search histories and confirm parts quickly. This freed up more time for agents to focus on providing quotes, sending offers, and converting interactions into sales.

The Home Depot

Handling over 1.8 billion customer transactions per year, The Home Depot wanted to enhance its search experience, both online and in-store. With Partium’s Visual Search, mobile app users can now snap a picture of a product and instantly find it in The Home Depot’s extensive catalog. Additionally, store associates can use Partium’s powerful search tool to quickly identify parts, reducing the time spent locating products and improving both customer service and operational efficiency.


These success stories illustrate how AI-powered solutions like Partium are not just theoretical innovations but practical tools that deliver measurable results across diverse industries. By streamlining parts identification and management, companies can drastically reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and enhance both customer and employee experiences. As more organizations embrace AI, the potential for optimization in operations, from manufacturing to field services, will only continue to grow. Partium remains at the forefront of this transformation, helping businesses worldwide unlock new levels of performance and efficiency.

For more info, visit: https://www.partium.io/