The 71th Annual Automotive Recyclers Association Convention and Expo was held this year in Nashville, Tennessee. Progi attended the various conferences and shares his impressions:
“There was a lot of emphasis on the standardization of ARA Parts grading & damage locator. This standardization occupies an important place in e-procurement, and there is a lot of talk about giving the various parties involved access to this information.”
Considerations on e-procurement were discussed in conferences where products similar to ProgiParts take a large place on the American market. They focused on real time notions, that is, communicating information in real time, as well as on using VIN decoding to retrieve required information. Recyclers were requesting the possibility to send vehicle parts photos (especially vehicle body parts) to shops before the sale, which would help avoid some returns. As a matter of fact, a speaker noted that during a repair, each mistake cost 1.6 days of cycle time. For Progi, the industry’s next challenge lies in comparing recycled parts assemblies with OEM and aftermarket individual parts in order to create more realistic price comparisons.
Another major item was the arrival on the market of performance measurement tools. These tools, offering dashboards that allow users to follow the progression of key performance indicators, are sought after in the industry, and new products are appearing to meet the demand. At Progi, such tools are already available within ProgiPac (the new edition) and will continue to be improved upon to meet the recyclers’ needs.