Proton Vendors Association president Dr Wan Mohamed Wan Embong says automotive vendors in Malaysia needs to speed up mergers and acquisitions so that Proton vendors will be stronger and will be able to perform in-house design and development including costly engineering and testing, as small and medium vendors would probably not be able to afford such R&D.
Sometime last month, the government announced a RM400 million fund under the Automotive Industry Development Fund for financial assistance for Proton vendors to improve quality and production levels.
A story back in 2006 mentioned that Proton had 270 vendors at that time. Proton now still has over 200 suppliers, but only 140 of them are members of the Proton Vendors Association. Even back during those times, the efforts for consolidation had already begun, but the process seems to be taking a long time.
“It is slow because it is not a easy task to group the entrepreneurs into one, where they have to report to possibly a boss again. And the fact that when you want to be an entrepreneur you have to be independent,” Dr Wan Mohamed added.
Dr Wan Mohamed himself is involved in a consolidation of four vendors under a new company called Automotive Network Alliances which specialises in car interior trim and noise control products.
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
gud. me first
nice comment first guy…
“automotive vendors in Malaysia needs to speed up mergers and acquisitions so that Proton vendors will be stronger”
This means that other vendors must merge so that Proton vendors will be stronger. Unless others are involved with Proton, then I don’t see why they would bother.
they should just stop polishing the coffin. no need to jibber jabber consolidation improve r & d of proton, etc crap.
they should just put the nail in the plank and send it off. dont delay
Problem is, who want to be boss of new firm. Sure every small boss itself want to be big boss. I can bet even though merger, there will not be reduction in workforce, and like everyone does their own thing only “borrow” your equipment for testing.
Wasting of time, we won’t care about the vendors? Let the market decides, eliminate those which can not produce quality products. No more government aid and people’s money.
too much politics in thr,n no one single person has enough power to do wats necessary….efficiency is the order of the day wen it comes to cuting costs and improve quality…..specially wen material costs are going up n up….
i jus tink proton doesnt hav much power to impose anyting on those vendors…dats y taking forever for sting small to hapen
i dont care…as long as the end product is good in quality.
what R&D they r tocking about??
Bullcrap.
“It is slow because it is not a easy task to group the entrepreneurs into one, where they have to report to possibly a boss again. And the fact that when you want to be an entrepreneur you have to be independent,†Dr Wan Mohamed added.
And he is an entrepreneur? Everyone knows, you will always have a Boss, this case, the customer.
As always, they make a big mess, then try to clean up. This is what happends when you spit up the pie so many pieces to “help” everyone and thier cousin…in the end you die.
They don’t need an association to fix thier ills. Thats just more paperwork and red-tape. Seems to me the Association is just another step to hold on to the monopoly a little while longer.
As E-nabill said, too much politics. Remove politics and automatically there will be a self correcting mechanism to fix the problem. Underperforming vendors will get the axe. You want to stay in business, you improve yourself (did someone mention the word “independent”), not wait for the government to help you.
Have you ever heard snakes share their food ?
So, how to consolidate the vendors ??
When you have an intention, you should find ways to do it and do it as soon as possible, meaning – have a dateline. The second thing is whether you achieve your objectives in doing it. If not then why do it? Have anyone studies the advantages and weaknesses of this option. Sometimes you can’t really see if there is no report telling you the Ringgit and Sen implication.
The issue with the quality of vendors has always been a concern. This not new.As for R&D major OEM’s now expect Tier one suppliers to be integrated into the design process. By actively participating in the design process, they can meet the quality and cost expectations of the customer. Normally the OEM only deals with a handful of Tier one suppliers. The tier one deals with the sub contracted tier two and three suppliers.
Suppliers are normally “Global” in nature. It is the wish of the government to have suppliers who are capable of getting business globally, due to their capabilities.
dramas dramas…
Politics politics politics… Why can’t they just buck up and produce quality parts? Otherwise just pack-up.
Syed Tahir, where are you?
maybe the association’s purpose is to get rid of unrelated or far away cousins. and keep the family close to its roots.
so much for proton being a national car when the nation has no say in any aspect of the company apart from working half your lives to keep the company afloat.
the r in the R & D stands for recreation. not sure what d means.
They should merge to compete overseas, not just same old playground. The Gov should assist them by providing specialized automotive research & test facilities, just like Thai & Taiwan did. This facility must also be accessible to all, not just Proton vendors. Now this is better way to spend RM400m than just handing out to privileged ones.
well,
in the first place, i hv no definite answer as to why we need Proton in the first place. can anyone answer that question? i guess we all knw what the answer might be.
so much money, time and effort has been spent to revitalise, much sayings, speculations, proposed takeovers. its tax payer’s money like me that has been used for this purpose. the money can be used for other purposes like to reduce import car duties, etc to make foreign cars cheaper and more affordable.
the problems will still persist even when all these efforts are made. we simply do not have the economies of scale in order to be like other world players. im sure an ordinary man on the streets know this.
no strategy and another clear failure.
can anyone tell me why do we need proton in the first place??
i guess we all knw the answer.
without economies of scale, even with spending huge amounts of monies, i dnt think we can see results.
its tax payers money like me which is being used for this. i dnt believe in this at all.
another clear failure in strategy.
speed it up..why Malaysian businesses always love to drag
izit the teenager mentality still there
together is stronger..somehow cos we’re too small to compete with those thugs outside malaysia
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