Catalogs for Auto Parts

Many of our parts experts at Autopartstomorrow.com have been in the auto parts industry for over 20 years. I will have been doing it for 15 years next Friday, May 27th. During that time there has been a HUGE transition in how our business is processed and also how parts are looked up. When I hit the call center as a newbie, the first thing I needed was a massive two-level catalog rack to hold all of the paper catalogs so that I could help when a customer needed to find the right part. Today, we have a system that allows us to look up any part we need on the internet. The transition has been a long and sometimes painful one.

The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association is made up of businesses in the market to help service vehicles after they have been sold. One of those facets is the auto parts industry. Many years ago it became obvious that if a standard format for the information needed on an auto part were not developed, it would be nearly impossible to have a quick and inexpensive process for assisting customers. Imagine if every time someone needed parts, the counter man needed to look at different web sites, in different formats, and not tied into their inventory... it would be chaos.

The A.A.I.A., working with leaders in the auto parts field, developed a standardized format and lobbied manufacturers to adopt the standard so that ALL parts could be loaded into one central cataloging system and then easily uploaded onto customers internal operating systems. It has been a long road, and is by no means complete, but we are now very close to having very robust information... long details part descriptions, multiple photos and drawings, application information, associated parts needed, installation notes, etc. All available in the same format for every part. What that does is cut down on costs and look-up mistakes for everyone. It is good for the industry and in the end good for the customer.

The process actually was broken into two different ones to try to get everything a little less complicated. They are now the A.C.E.S and P.I.E.S. programs. Aftermarket Catalog Enhanced Standard and the Product Information Exchange Standard. Behing the scenes it is pretty complex, but believe me... it will make thing so much better for everyone. It is well worth the effort.

Autopartstomorrow.com