1. A computer-based method of generating recommendations for potential purchase by a customer, comprising: transforming a part catalog into a normalized part catalog by mapping at least one generic catalog item from the part catalog into a set of normalized catalog items based on attribute names and values corresponding to the generic catalog item; transforming a transaction history data set into a normalized transaction history data set with a computer system by mapping at least one generic item from the transaction history data set into a set of normalized items based on attribute names and values corresponding to the generic item; generating association rules based on the normalized transaction history data set; transforming a recommendation context into a normalized transaction data set by mapping at least one customer item from the recommendation context into a set of normalized transaction items based on attribute names and values corresponding to the customer item; generating a recommendation by selecting a rule from the association rules that best matches with the normalized transaction data set.