By Michael V. Freeze, Managing Editor, aftermarketNews
CHICAGO, IL — The automotive aftermarket industry gathered in Chicago for the three-day event known as the Aftermarket eForum yesterday. This year’s theme, Solutions Today for Tomorrow’s Technology Challenges, featured various speakers from the OE market to the AAIA’s tech guru on the first day.
The forum was presented by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), AIA Canada and Automotive Warehouse Distributors Association (AWDA).
AAIA’s Vice President of Technology Solutions and Standards Scott Luckett started the eForum with some opening words for the industry insiders in attendance.
“Clearly, industry wide collaboration for standards, data and interconnectivity are the only way out of the swamp that we find ourselves in, “ said Luckett. “You’ll see and hear the evidence about the many truths of collaboration during the next couple of days.”
AAIA President and CEO Kathleen Schmatz presented the AAIA Visionary Award to Mike Williams of O’Reilly Auto Parts. The award honors “the vision and imagination in the application of technology for the betterment of the aftermarket industry”.
Williams is the vice president of advanced technology for the auto parts retailer. For health reasons, he was unable to attend, but fortunately fellow Vice President of Information Systems Steve Jasinski accepted the award on his behalf.
”Vision without passion, vision without action is just a dream and nothing more,” said Jasinski. “Mike invested this trait tremendously and Mike is very passionate about connectivity in the industry.”
The first scheduled speaker was John Saia, manager of the Technical and Body Training Development group in the University of Toyota, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S., Inc. Saia’s speech, Technology-Enabled Tech Training focused on the group’s best practices. The University of Toyota gives technicians ongoing training to service today’s complex vehicles.”
”The first thing I want to tell you is that I’m from the aftermarket, too,” Saia said matter of fact-like. “I’m a recovering technician and also a recovering instructor.”
Saia explained the origins of the “blended learning strategy,” which consists of the Toyota Education And Competency Hierarchy (TEACH). TEACH is a online self study refresher guide of what Saia called “the basic stuff, the ‘know’ stuff.”
“It’s animation and interactivity to bring things to life,” said Saia.
The next speaker, Dayco President of the North American aftermarket division Dennis Welvaert sparked memories of the late 60’s movie with his titled speech, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the eForum. The 34-year industry veteran poked fun at himself as he proclaimed his skeptism towards e-business implementation a few years ago.
“(At the eForum in 2003), I figured it would be a geek fest of staggering proportions,” confessed Welvaert. “But it turned out to be entertaining, education and thought-provoking.”
The heart of Welveart’s lesson was the “eight essential truisms for technology adoption in the aftermarket,” and the “2-4-8 reality of the OE threat.”
The OE threat rule referred to the 2 percent net profit a typical OE dealership usually makes on new cars, the 4 percent on used cars and the 8 percent profit on parts and services.
“Even a typical OE dealer can figure out that aggressively pursuing parts and services is good for the bottom line,” said Welveart. “I believe that technology is the best thing against that threat.”
After a short break, the association tag team of AAIA’s Luckett and MEMA’s Chris Gardner, who is also vice president of marketing for the Management Information Systems Group, Inc. (MISG), gave the attendees a well-rehearsed presentation on industry standards dubbed as “Around the World of Aftermarket Standards and Technology – in 60 Minutes.”
Both of the men inform the audience of the advancement of industry standards, such as Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) and AAIA Catalog Enhanced Standard (ACES), and stressed the importance of the aftermarket embracing them. Speaking of PIES, Gardner said, “(There is) no application information. PIES defines the best way, field by field, to manage information It includes and support all kinds of information.”
Gardner went on to explain the benefits of the industry being on the same page in terms of data.
“Your list doesn’t mean a thing to anyone outside your company if it doesn’t match,” warned Gardner. “Companies should be able to exchange information to decode and code. Computers love numbers.”
The last speaker of the day was Lisa Henkel, IT manager for Gates Corporation. At the beginning of “The View from the Edge of Aftermarket IT,” she began asking aloud, “Why are we in the aftermarket? To make money? Not quite. To sell products to our customers? Getting close. We are in the aftermarket to partner with our customers.”
Henkel placed major emphasis on partnerships with the suppliers and customers.
“For a long time, the quality of growth relied on ‘widgets.’ The quality of our product, the availability and the pricing,” said Henkel. “I suggest to you that our growth relies on the partnering of your customers making the customer and supplier both strong.”
During her speech, Henkel made a strong analog comparing the beginning struggles of the bar coding 15 years ago to the challenges of technology today explaining how the innovation was a hard sell through the supply chain line.
After the series of the speeches, attendees were greeted to a reception at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Rosemont ballroom.
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