Good Stihl Info

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Looks like lots o' work for sure. But I meant examples of scans and conversions.
Not sure what you mean. Micro Fiche is just miniaturized photos of particular document pages. Snap a photo of a page in front of you and shrink it down, rince and repeat. All they do is reduce the bulk.
OCR is software that allows you to quickly search for specific things in a large series of documents. Example: you have complete ipls and service manuals on microfiche for all chainsaws. You are looking for a specific pt# for a specific saw. Enter those parameters into your newly created database and up pops all the pages where those items are found.
 
Stihl has just recently done this for their dealers, according to mine. As we know there are many parts that fit several different saws. Often these same parts have different pt#s. So, the dealer enters the part# you give her and she says, " no longer available". But, if there is another # for that exact part it may well show up as available. This happened to me recently and she was able, now, to find the same part under a different #. She couldn't do that before.
This is an example of OCR (optical character recognition). The software recognizes words, numbers, characters, etc.
 
Stihl has just recently done this for their dealers, according to mine. As we know there are many parts that fit several different saws. Often these same parts have different pt#s. So, the dealer enters the part# you give her and she says, " no longer available". But, if there is another # for that exact part it may well show up as available. This happened to me recently and she was able, now, to find the same part under a different #. She couldn't do that before.
NLA usually means NLA at the distributor level but a resourceful dealer knows how to cross ref to previous part numbers still possibly available in their own inventory. Stihl has had part number history/evolution documentation in place for quite some time. I've been doing it for years myself and basically trained my local dealer. Most are too lazy to even make an effort if they even know how to look up current part numbers accurately.

Not sure what you mean. Micro Fiche is just miniaturized photos of particular document pages. Snap a photo of a page in front of you and shrink it down, rince and repeat. All they do is reduce the bulk.
OCR is software that allows you to quickly search for specific things in a large series of documents. Example: you have complete ipls and service manuals on microfiche for all chainsaws. You are looking for a specific pt# for a specific saw. Enter those parameters into your newly created database and up pops all the pages where those items are found.
I know all this. I mean examples of a finished effort, like a sample .pdf showing the result of your process.
 
NLA usually means NLA at the distributor level but a resourceful dealer knows how to cross ref to previous part numbers still possibly available in their own inventory. Stihl has had part number history/evolution documentation in place for quite some time. I've been doing it for years myself and basically trained my local dealer. Most are too lazy to even make an effort if they even know how to look up current part numbers accurately.


I know all this. I mean examples of a finished effort, like a sample .pdf showing the result of your process.
Like I said, it would just be like looking at a copied page.
 
Ah, ok. The files would be exactly what has been posted in this thread, nothing more. Scanning microfiche is just taking documents/pages that were scanned and shrunk down, back to their original size.
As for OCR you can already put all the files posed here into a searchable database. There would be no sense scanning fiche that have the same info as what is already here. I thought you had a pile of fiche that are not in a readable format. You mentioned this would cost a lot...I'm offering to do it for nothing.
 
Others can probably shed more light, but I've always been under the impression that Stihl relied more heavily on hard copy documentation than microfiche back in the day..., and even until digitization became available. (I personally don't have any Stihl microfiche documentation.) Their hard copy material is legendary for its sheer size and volume(s) and like gold when you can find it. It's amazing and a shame how many dealers just tossed it when it became 'obsolete' (or they went out of business). A guy just up the road from me has shelves full of old Stihl documentation and it'll stay there till he dies. Just refuses to let it go.

McCulloch on the other hand was all about the microfiche....., but that's a whole different thread.
 

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