Data standardisation simplifies things: Dana Aftermarket Europe achieves Premier Data Supplier status

Dana offers a variety of aftermarket solutions for passenger cars and commercial and off-highway vehicles in original equipment quality to customers worldwide. Founded in 1904 and with its headquarters in Maumee, Ohio, USA, Dana employs 40,000 people in 31 countries on six continents, with annual revenue in 2021 of $8.9 billion.

The best-known brands in Dana’s European aftermarket product portfolio are Victor Reinz?, Spicer?, Glaser?.

The Victor Reinz brand includes the most comprehensive range of aftermarket service parts. As an international supplier to the automotive industry, the company specialises in developing and producing sealing technology and fuel cell components. They are an original equipment manufacturer for all major automobile and engine manufacturers worldwide – from Smart to Bugatti.?Dana also manufactures driveshafts, axles, transmission parts and related components under the Spicer brand name.

We speak with Niklas Veith , Product and Data Manager at Victor Reinz? of Dana Aftermarket Europe (Dana).

How many brands do you have in the TecDoc Catalogue? How long have you been working with TecDoc?

There are three brands: Victor Reinz, Glaser and Spicer available in TecDoc. Victor Reinz has been working with TecDoc since 1994. Reinz-Dichtungs-GmbH is in fact a shareholder. We also publish under the brand name Glaser.

Our youngest brand within TecDoc is Spicer. Since 2016, we have been publishing data on drive shafts, universal joints, Cardan shaft bearings, flanges and other powertrain components under this brand name. We collaborate with TecDoc so that our customers can see our aftermarket product lines – all in a single source.

What does data quality mean to you?

Data quality is not only about being accurate and complete, but also about understanding the needs of our customers and continuously improving the data we offer them.

Data quality and the resulting data standards have long been essential within Dana. We welcome and support the TecDoc Data Quality Management (DQM) initiative because standardisation usually leads to less complexity. The more data standards there are, the easier it will be for our customers to navigate. We see the introduction of such standards as a valuable aid and are proud to fulfil them for ourselves and our customers.?

Premier Data Supplier (PDS) Status?– Achieved!

It was very exciting when the PDS status for Data Suppliers was first introduced: we had to fulfil new KPIs in addition to those for the Certified Data Supplier (CDS). It was helpful that reports were sent out in advance that gave us a good overview of the current status. From data submission to data submission, we worked continuously on fulfilling the KPIs before they went “live”. As a result, we gained?greater understanding and acceptance over time.

Dana’s focus has always been on customer satisfaction in terms of our product data and link data, or rather data quality. The easier it is for our customers to find the right spare part, the better it is. In addition, we want to provide all customers with as much relevant data as possible so that they can decide in favour of a Dana spare part at the point of service.

Dana has achieved the PDS status – what do you expect to gain from this status?

By achieving PDS status within the TecDoc Catalogue, we show our customers that we meet the highest standards for data quality.

TecAlliance supported us on the way to PDS through regular reports, info-mails and webinars. In addition, there was a feeling of?“togetherness”. This meant e.g. that criteria in the GA list were adapted or supplemented at our initiative. We also found it very useful that a kind of “waterfall strategy” was used for the introduction. Thus, 40 GAs were initially assessed and the number then gradually increased.

But we also know that our work is not done with the achievement of PDS status. We continue to work on improving our data quality to fully meet the outstanding KPIs.

Unfortunately, many of our customers may not be aware of the new PDS status or have not taken notice of it. From our point of view, it is now important to communicate even more strongly the added value of the PDS status in the market. We would like TecAlliance to raise awareness in the market about the DQM initiative and its results and to intensify direct communication on this with our customers from the trade and workshops.

Working with Data in TecDoc – how does it influence your own product standards?

We already have our own standards that go beyond the TecAlliance standards, and we are working on integrating even more into our daily work. These standards include, for example, the publication of products with high-quality product images. More product images, e.g. from different perspectives, will follow in the future.

We are also working on transferring the ACES/PIES data as precise and correctly as possible into the TecDoc world and vice versa. To do this, we welcome any support, such as more tools and links to make this easier and more effective.