Company Background:
ACS Pentas Asia (APASB) is a start-up incorporated in Malaysia, to provide an e-commerce platform for the trading of genuine auto spare parts. The founders, with their 100+ years auto industry experience, believe that there is a market for aged, genuine auto spare parts. APASB has developed the SpareXHub portal (SXH) which provides a centralized auto parts database, as a marketplace for branded, automotive spare parts including aged parts.
The distributors and stockist carry inventory which can be traded at well below retail prices directly to car owners, independent workshops and stockists. These parts can be offered to buyers who are looking for heavily discounted genuine parts. Buyers can access the portal with a browser or the user-friendly mobile app to search, purchase and pay for parts on-line. Our comprehensive Auction Platform allows Buyers to participate in interactive bidding to get value for their Ringgit. Logistics services are also provided for on-site delivery.
APASB’s e-commerce platform provides functionalities that enables our parts experts to upload and maintain aged parts that have been written down or discounted to be attractive to the Buyers to purchase on-line. The intent is to attract the Buyers to register so that they can also be reached for promotions and special offers targeted to Buyers from previous purchase profiles.
Excess or stock-overhang is a business concern in any product/retail industry where the retailers must maintain levels of stock to ensure availability and hence provide quality customer services. This is more so in the Automotive sector, with the rapidly changing models, where car owners insist on genuine parts for their regular servicing needs or for repairs in cases of accidents.
Obsolescence, an industry term to catagorise excess or aged stock, is also a result of poor inventory management and the rapid changes in the product mix as Brand owners’ race to introduce new models with newer technologies to differentiate their products or target another market segment. The parts specialists from SXH have carefully inspected the parts to ensure they are still in good condition and fit-for-use before uploading relevant data and images for buyers to select and purchase. Therefore, it is believed that there would be a demand if marketed at the right price to discerning Buyers.
Since its launch, a year ago, SXH has piloted a Phase One version of its e-commerce platform to validate the initial Proof-of-Concept stage. Sales and support services were also rolled-out to selected stakeholders from amongst stockiest and workshops (B2B) and direct to car owners (B2C).
Due to an increase in the database of parts, dynamic pricing formula to meet the different buyer needs has been introduced. To enhance the shopping experience, a comprehensive auction module has been now included to encourage Buyers participate to get the best value for their Ringgit.
With a better understanding and appreciation of the marketplace, SXH has been relaunched with improved functionalities with on-line payment facilities and logistics option for delivery to meet the demands of the marketplace for auto spare parts targeted to the passenger vehicles sector of the Industry.
A Mobile App for Android phones, has been designed to facilitate the Order Processing and Delivery Confirmation function. Please contact us for a link..
The IOS version will be out with the next release.
The FDs are authorized sales outlets which provide after sales services, including sales of genuine spare parts and body-shop repairs and paint works. Car owners’ whose cars are under warranty will return to their respective FDs for regular car servicing and when necessary for body works.
The car dealerships or showrooms which operate either as a 1-S Centre, 2-S Centre, 3-S Centre, and now 4-S Centres.
A 1-S Centre is a franchised dealership which operates as a sales showroom only. A 2-S Centre sells and provides scheduled service for their customers’ cars. A 3-S Centre additionally provides genuine spare parts to enable a faster service time for customers. A 4-S Centre, which a few dealerships have already started in Malaysia, provides a fourth added service which is Body Repair and Paint shop.
A 3S and 4S title would mean these dealers carry spare parts and this results in excess capacity to meet their customer service KPI demands. If these genuine parts don’t move within a stipulated period, they are considered aged parts and eventually become obsolete.
The IWs provides parts and services especially for cars that have surpassed their warranty periods and are more competitively priced for their parts and services as compared to the franchised dealers’ workshops.
There are IWs that are specialized or certified to provide their services to specific brand of cars. This means they have trained and/or certified technical experts to provide such services. These IWs would also provide genuine spare parts to ensure owners are given the best quality service.
Then come the general workshops that provide basic car-servicing options, plus added services such as the ‘air-condition and battery service’ and the tyre shops.
It is important to ensure that these workshops have been approved by the PIAM, the Malaysian Insurance Association.
Stockist
Stockist are auto spare part dealers who may carry specific brands or a range of brands. Some Stockist also have their own channels to import parts but most depend on local major distributors. Besides the dealers, there also exist within the market, Authorised Dealers or ‘stockists’ that carry mainly genuine parts of one brand.
Other general stockists would carry after-market (older parts or reconditioned/remanufactured parts) for the older models. Every car brand has their dedicated stockist or Original Equipment Suppliers (OEM) suppliers that provide them with the parts and components when the dealers or workshops need it.
It is important to note that genuine auto parts are managed and controlled by the National Sales Company or their authorised agents.
What is Obsolence:
Definition: Obsolete parts are parts or components that have been held in inventory, usually, for more than a year from the date of purchase. Obsolete parts or sometimes referred to as ‘Dead-Stock’, are an industry norm as it is the cost of doing business to ensure sufficient quantities of stock are carried to meet daily service requirements to maintain customer services KPI.
Root Causes:
- Wrongly ordered by the Parts Counter staff
- Increased model mix and shorter product life
- Wrong category model/make parameter set-up
- Back orders not collected by Service Advisors
- Obsession with high Service Levels leading to over-stocking
- Low completion campaigns leaving behind unsold promotional items
- Principal’s “motive” to encourage stock turn targets
- General poor inventory controls
Impact: Obsolete stock take up space on the shelves and this contributes to holding cost as it ties up working capital. Also, this creates a lack of space for new orders to come in for other customers and therefore leading to a longer service time and disruption to the weekly service schedule of the dealership. As the dealership places new orders from their suppliers, the obsolete parts are on the shelf for a longer time impacting their bottom-line. Most dealerships practice a depreciation policy which eventually reduces the stock to a write-off value.
Our Services
For Genuine parts suppliers
- Upload data on obsolete/aged stock (dimensions, weight & images)
- View Sales Orders-to-date and details
- Pick-up schedules
- Daily/Weekly/On-demand Reports on sales, delivery and value
- Outstanding Sales Orders
For IW
- Search parameters for parts by PartNumber, description, mode, category etc
- Confirm order details, delivery schedules etc
- On-line Payment
- Daily/Weekly/On-demand Reports on purchases, delivery and value
- Outstanding Purchase Orders
For Stockist
- Search parameters for parts by PartNumber, description, mode, category etc
- Upload data on obsolete/aged stock (dimensions, weight & images)
- View Purchase/Sales Orders-to-date and details
- On-line payments
- Pick-up / Drop off schedules
- Daily/Weekly/On-demand Reports on sales, delivery and value
- Outstanding Purchase/Sales Orders
For Owners
- Search parameters for parts by PartNumber, description, mode, category etc
- View Purchase/Sales Orders-to-date and details
- On-line payments
- Pick-up / Drop off schedules
- Reports on purchase history, delivery and value
- Outstanding Sales Orders
Logistics Partners
- Pick-up/delivery requests (upload via spreadsheets)
- Real-time monitoring/tracking of deliveries
- Weekly/Monthly parts movement/delivery reports
