The UK based consultancy Ricardo-AEA carried out an update on its study published in 2014 on the functioning of the system on access to Repair and Maintenance Information for independent market operators. The focus of this updates Survey is on independent aftermarket (IAM) participants that are at the heart of the parts identification process.
The survey highlighted that an accurate parts identification is the most important feature for workshops when ordering spare parts and access to complete and unequivocal parts identification information is needed. The inability to unequivocally identify parts results in additional burdens, as well as loss of business to other providers. 85% of all respondents stated that they experienced multiple or wrong deliveries which has led to an increase in the total cost of running the business of 11% on average. In the large majority of the cases the information shared by OEMs with the IAM participants has to be manually compiled for their catalogues on a one-to-one basis. The survey highlighted that the most important factors to ensure the competitiveness of the IAM participants are thus:
- Access to complete and unequivocal parts identification information
- Information in machine readable and electronically processable format
- Information that includes full range of VINs (17-digit code) per OEM brand and the related OE part numbers.