Writing a product catalogue a purchase engineer will keep

A purchase engineer keeps a catalogue that works. It lets the engineer find a part by number, check it against a drawing, and see what to quote on an order. So put specifications first and photographs second. Make every part number searchable. Say plainly that drawings come on request. A catalogue that opens with a founder's message and a factory photograph is easier to skim once and delete.

What the engineer does with it

A purchase engineer receives catalogues from many suppliers and opens them with a task. The task may be a drawing or an old part, and the question is whether you make something that matches. Or it may be a vendor list for a new project, where range and sizes need to be seen in one view.

Three things matter. Finding the part quickly. Confirming that the size, material and rating match. Knowing what to say to order it. Design everything around those three.

The page layout to copy

Use the same layout on every product page, so the reader learns it once.

The specification table is the page. Everything else supports it. Put the units in the column heading, not in each cell, and keep the same order of columns on every page.

Make part numbers searchable

If the catalogue is a PDF, the text must be real text, not images of text. Test it by opening the file and searching for one of your part numbers. If nothing is found, a buyer who types the number in will find nothing either.

Three habits help:

1. Write the part number the same way everywhere, with the same hyphens and spaces, so a search for one form finds all.
2. Add an index at the back listing every part number against its page.
3. Where a part replaces an old number or fits against a competitor's number, say so on the page. Buyers may search for the old number.

Name the file clearly too. "Catalogue final 3.pdf" gets lost in a downloads folder. "YourCompany-pneumatic-fittings-catalogue-rev-C.pdf" gets found.

Drawings on request, and why

Giving every drawing in the catalogue bloats it and puts your design in circulation. Giving none loses the engineer who needs a drawing to check fit. The middle way is a small outline sketch on each page, to show what the dimensions mean, plus a line offering the full drawing on request.

When a drawing request arrives, treat it as an enquiry: log who asked, for which part, and call back. It is a better lead than a general contact form. For buyers who want a confidentiality agreement before sharing detail, see our note on drawings, NDAs and file sharing.

An invented case: a pneumatic fittings maker in Faridabad

Take an invented unit in Faridabad making push-in fittings, couplings and tubing for machine builders. Its catalogue was a fifty-page brochure with a large photograph on each page and sizes listed in a paragraph of running text. A machine builder's purchase engineer in Pune asked for a "6 mm tube, 1/4 inch thread elbow" and the sales person spent half an hour locating it.

The owner rebuilt the catalogue with one table per family. Each row held the part number, tube size, thread size, body material and pack quantity. The index listed numbers in order. The same sales person now answered the same request by pasting the row into a reply. A second change mattered more, though it cost more effort. The Pune engineer had been searching for a rival's part number. So the owner added a column showing which of the owner's parts sat in place of the common competing numbers, marked "dimensionally compatible, check your drawing". Rules on compatibility claims and on using a rival's numbers differ, so the owner checked with an adviser and worded the line as a pointer, not a promise. Building the column took two people most of a week, and the engineer still asked for the drawing before ordering.

Keep a revision letter and a retired-parts page

Put a revision letter and date on the cover and again in the file name, and keep the letter in step with the price list you send separately. An engineer who finds two catalogues in a folder wants to know which one is current. When a part is dropped or its size changes, do not delete it silently. Give the retired number a short line at the back with its replacement. Buyers who still hold an old drawing will search for the old number, and a line that says "now 6612-B" turns a dead end into an order.

Keep prices out of the catalogue itself. They change faster than the specifications, and a printed price that is wrong is worse than none.

When a catalogue is the wrong tool

If you make mostly to a customer's drawing, a catalogue of standard parts is the wrong document. A capability deck, which shows machines and tolerances, serves you better. Our post on what goes on each slide of a capability deck covers it.

Also hold back if your range changes every season. A printed catalogue will be wrong within months. Keep a searchable PDF with a revision date and a short price-free list of what is current.

Test it with a real buyer's question

Take three recent enquiries and try to answer each from your catalogue alone, timing yourself. If any takes more than a minute, find the page that failed and change its layout. Then ask a purchase engineer you know to find three parts. If you want your range laid out this way, brochures, catalogues and marketing materials is the service, the manufacturing hub has more for factories, and you can tell us what you need.