In the rapidly evolving landscape of the automotive industry, companies like Astra Auto Trust are leveraging Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to stay competitive and foster innovation. This case study delves into Astra Auto Trust's journey of implementing ERP solutions tailored to the automotive sector.
Astra Auto Trust recognized the need for streamlined processes and enhanced efficiency to navigate the complexities of the automotive industry. The company aimed to optimize resource utilization, improve decision-making, and elevate customer satisfaction by implementing ERP systems specifically designed for automotive operations.
Name of Organization: Astra Auto Trust
Location: Indonesia
Industry: Automotive Industry
Time of implementation: 2019-present
System implemented: Sales, Purchase, Inventory, HR, Accounting
Total Branches: 10 branches throughout Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan
About Astra Auto Trust
PT Astra Auto Trust is a member of PT Astra International Tbk, one of Indonesia's largest automotive companies. The company is also known as Toyota Trust and was established in 2016.
Toyota Trust has several services to help customers who want to trade in from your old vehicle to Toyota and sell quality used cars with an official Toyota Astra Motor warranty.
Toyota Trust provides several services such as:
1. Trade-In: Toyota Trust assists customers in conducting a trade-in process from your old vehicle to Toyota.
2. Quality Used Cars: Toyota Trust sells good-quality cars and an official Toyota Astra Motor warranty.
3. Price subsidies and shopping vouchers: Customers who buy used cars with Toyota Trust can get special vouchers for shopping and price subsidies.
There are 10 branches of Toyota Trust, spread across major cities in Java, such as Jakarta, Sidoarjo, Bogor, and Karawang. Meanwhile, there are branches in Kalimantan Island, in Balikpapan, and Sumatra Island, in Medan.
The Challenges
A company in the automotive industry named Toyota Trust urgently needed to upgrade its management system, particularly in buying and selling used cars.
In their day-to-day operations, Toyota Trust realized the importance of a system that could efficiently and systematically record every transaction of buying and selling cars.
This was crucial to ensure that the history of these transactions could be well-documented and easily accessed, facilitating analysis, tracking, and reporting.
However, the management system previously used by Toyota Trust had shown limitations in handling the increasingly complex and evolving automotive business needs.
The system could not be easily customized or tailored to accommodate the latest workflow desired by Toyota Trust. As a result, recording and managing data became less efficient and prone to errors, and accessing needed information quickly and accurately became challenging.
In response to this challenge, Toyota Trust decided to seek a better-suited solution. After carefully evaluating various ERP platforms, their attention turned to Odoo.
Odoo is known for its high flexibility in adapting to diverse business needs. With customizable features, Odoo allowed Toyota Trust to create a management system that perfectly matched their newly designed workflow.
By using Odoo, Toyota Trust hopes to improve its operational efficiency, optimize the recording and tracking of car transactions, and enhance the accessibility and accuracy of data.
Thus, they aim to achieve higher customer satisfaction levels and strengthen their position in the competitive automotive market.
Objectives
Toyota Trust sets several goals to enhance their daily used car buying and selling business activities by ensuring an integrated ERP user experience with their system for more efficient recording and optimal customer service.
There is an assessment regarding the quality of used cars received or sold by and to customers according to standards.
They aim to customize the system by efficiently recording sales and purchases from various branches.
They want to establish an HR system focusing on payroll, employee lists, attendance, paid leave, overtime, and expenses.
Key Implementation Strategies
Having a thorough understanding of the challenges, Portcities, an Odoo partner and expert in ERP solutions, commenced their work.
To overcome the challenging problems faced by Toyota Trust, a comprehensive solution was formulated involving a phased approach to implementing the Odoo ERP system.
- ERP Integration: Astra Auto Trust seamlessly integrated ERP modules tailored to automotive manufacturing, supply chain management, and customer relationship management.
- Data Centralization: The ERP system facilitated centralized data management, providing real-time insights into production, inventory, and sales across multiple automotive units.
- Process Automation: Automated workflows streamlined manufacturing processes, reducing lead times and enhancing productivity on the factory floor.
- Supply Chain Optimization: ERP functionalities enabled Astra Auto Trust to optimize the supply chain, ensuring timely procurement of raw materials and components while minimizing costs.
- Customizing the system: Portcities customized the system in the purchasing process. The system that was already owned by Toyota Trust was integrated with the inspection application. This implementation ensures that purchases can be directly entered into the system efficiently and payments can be made.
Not only that, the Portcities team also customized the bill payment by customers to be separated. In addition, the team also integrated the Odoo system for document completeness purposes. That is when the customer will pay, and the admin or staff from Toyota Trust will check the vehicle registration document related to the vehicle.
After the admin checks and records in the system, the customer of Toyota Trust will make the payment.
What Portcities do?
Set up the Odoo modules
At the beginning of the work phase, Portcities offered 4 main Odoo modules in terms of business operations, namely,
- Sales
- Inventory
- Purchase
- Accounting
The addition of HR modules as an internal management system
Portcities provides a solution by adding the use of Odoo modules, HR, or Human Resources from the internal management side which includes,
- Attendances,
- Employee list,
- Overtime,
- Paid-leaves,
- Overtime work,
- Expenses
At the time of implementation, the available version of Odoo is 12. Portcities used this version in 2019 to develop the buying and selling system at Toyota Trust.
When writing this case study, the Portcities and Toyota Trust projects were still running in March 2024. The Odoo version used in this project is still version 12.
Conclusion
Equipped with a tailored ERP solution and a dedicated team, Toyota Trust, a company specializing in the buying and selling used cars, continues collaborating with Portcities to enhance its internal management and operational business processes.
As they progress, the potential for growth and innovation in the automotive industry remains boundless.
Are you prepared to begin your ERP transformation journey? Reach out to our team of specialists at Portcities today. We're committed to assisting you in streamlining your operations, increasing efficiency, and fostering sustainable growth within the retail industry.