The manager says he thinks he has one, but he will have to look to make sure and will call the sales representative back when he know for sure. The manager checks and finds the part, he call the sales representative and informs him that he has the part and what its condition is. The sales representative then call the short line railroad back and starts negotiating a price for the part. This is how business in this industry has been conducted for years. It is slow and inefficient.
Time is money to the company with the broken locomotive.
If their train doesn t run they can t make their deadline. A short line railroad would probably be willing to pay a higher price for a part if they could get it faster. If National had a complete up to date database the sales representative wouldn t have to call again. He could just check the database, find the part, make his sale and ship the part all without leaving his computer. The database would have to be interactive to allow the entry of new parts at the dismantling facilities and to allow sales representatives to indicate parts that have been sold and are no longer available.