Bay Auto Services runs a chain of automotive service stations and repair workshops. The company provides a set of standardized services for routine maintenance and management of cars, including oil and filter changes, tune-ups and cleaning plus specialized repair jobs for all types of vehicles.
The company maintains a small inventory of standardized parts and supplies on hand at each of its locations. However, specialized and vehicle or model-specific parts are ordered at the time of each job. The company negotiates long-term price contracts with suppliers for the most commonly requested parts to minimize the need for individual workshops to have to source parts or negotiate prices. However, there remains a long tail or less frequently required items which each workshop sources on its own.
When sourcing items on its own, each workshop reaches out directly to suppliers, dealers, or wholesalers in its local area and obtains multiple price quotations. Clients are provided an estimated based on the lowest obtained quote.
Historically, specialized and non-routine purchases were infrequent, and manual quotation sourcing did not consume too much time. However, this has changed over time and each workshop frequently had to spend time sourcing quotations and manually recording each quotation in their system. This dramatically increased the administrative work and added to the company’s overheads.
To minimize the manual work, Bay Autos required a solution that enabled each workshop to requisition quotes digitially and process them efficiently without requiring manual entry, excel sheets or paperwork processing.
Proqura’s digitized procure-to-pay system with electronic bid submission for suppliers eliminated the need for all manual recording of quotes or data entry to create comparison sheets.
The average manhours spent on procurement process management declined by roughly 25% across each workshop and location, freeing up administrative resources and streamlining the procurement process.
