Lessons Learned By Ginny Whelan ginny@araeducation.com

Pulled and Scrubbed?What is This All About?

oday’s industry is show- ing recycled parts are trending to be in higher demand in the repair process. With all of the patent strategies and core programs implemented by the OEM’s, recycled parts have the same classifications of OE parts and are the less expensive option. Technology has increased efficiencies in the repair work flow process and esti- mating platforms use indus- try standards to ensure the correct parts are being selected to the proper repair. A major concern to call attention to is the informa- tion entered by recyclers into the “free form” text field(s). The information is then uploaded and scrub- bed by Procurement Parts Software Providers which often results in the reduc- tion of parts presented to

T

The ARA Damage Locator Quality Assurance Grid is the accepted industry standard for definition of damage location and code type.

parts purchasers. Data contained in this fieldmayincludenegative wordsandpart damage descriptions which are inconsis- tent with the ARA Parts Grade and Damage Codes assigned to the specific part (see chart at right).

One known example that demon-

strates this issue involved a search that ini- tially produced 42 individual part records. After the Procurement Parts Software Provider scrubbed the free form text field, only two recycled parts were pre- sented to the parts purchaser. Removing parts, subsequent to scrub- bing the data contained in the free form text field, reduces thenumberof recycled parts visible to the purchaser, leaving thousands of recycled parts out of the automated parts procurement. And, it is costing recyclers thousands of dollars in

20 Automotive Recycling | November-December 2016

lost sales. See the article on page 44. Recyclers are urged not to enter data in this field which may conflict with the ARA Parts Grade and Damage Code(s) assigned to the part. Additional informa- tion the recyclers wish to provide should be placed in specific fields created to enhance the description of the part (e.g. paint color, OEM color code, etc.). We are urging Procurement Parts Software Providers to include separate data fields in their systems to allow additional rele- vant information to be provided to the parts purchaser, thus limiting the need to utilize the free form text for this purpose. Another issue is that some individual recyclers have their own standard in how they enter the information within their facility, but it does not coincide to how other recyclers enter their text field infor-

mation leaving software providers to struggle with the interpretation of the information in the free form text fields. Inthemeantime,only enter the fields in your parts system that are represented by the standards developed by the industry. An effort by ARA with CIECA Recycled

Parts&Inventory Committee is attempt- ing to make it easier for software appli- cations to correctly pull data contained in your parts inventory system to allow the customer to make an informed decision in part selection, and eliminate false and/or conflicting part information. Also, ARA through their implementa-

tion of coding and parts grading stan- dards, in concert with CIECA, is working to improve sales opportunities intherecy- cled parts procurement industry. When it comes to parts procurement,