Users are free to purchase spare parts from anywhere, but the bottom line is that 3D sells more parts, and the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is the only one with the original 3D files. The OEM has a clear advantage to exploit to increase their market share in a global auto parts industry of US$1.9 Trillion (if they’re in the automotive industry).
Keeping the illustrations in the interactive part catalogue representative of the product shipped to the customer is essential to a great customer experience, but it’s complicated. It’s tricky because part catalogue authors need to work with several disjointed applications from multiple vendors to publish a parts catalogue. Each tool offers isolated gains but can’t significantly improve the entire process. Publishing an online spare parts catalogue is further complicated because the process comprises offline applications to generate the exploded views and online applications to publish the catalogues.