Following the opening of a Regional Parts Centre in Sarawak last year, Proton now also has a Regional Parts Centre (RPC) in Sabah, which has the third highest number of Proton sales. The facility is located in a commercial area in Inanam, Kota Kinabalu.
With this new facility enabling storage of more spare parts in Sabah, distribution time will be reduced by 30%, so service centres will get the parts faster, benefitting Proton owners.
The parts will be shipped (by air or by sea) to the RPC from the Proton Parts Centre in Peninsular Malaysia, as well as directly from suppliers overseas (instead of having to pass through the main Proton Parts Centre).
The Sabah RPC covers a built-up floor space of approximately 28,000 sq ft, which is 2.5 times bigger than its previous location. It can receive up to 6 containers of parts on site simultaneously, up from 2 containers previously. It is currently processing an average of 26 containers per month to fully utilise its capability to store up to 3 months of stock.
“With growing customer demand over the past few years, Proton’s previous warehouse facilities in Sabah were overflowing with parts and running inefficiently due to a lack of space. The opening of this new and larger facility in Kota Kinabalu will complement its counterpart in Kuching and both will function collectively as parts distribution centres for aftersales parts and components for East Malaysia,” said Edmund Lim, Vice-President of Sales and Aftersales, Proton Edar.
“This overall improvement in storage allows a buffer for demand surges and fluctuations, enabling us to increase parts throughput and as of today, we are rapidly addressing the backlog of orders from our dealers and customers in this market,” he said.
Proton has also deployed a new warehouse management system at all its locations earlier this year, enabling the daily delivery capacity at the new RPC to jump 66% to 300 lines in July from 180 lines previously, with a maximum capacity of 400 lines slated to be achieved by September.
The added space also allows the allocation of 8,500 bins to store parts, up from 5,000 bins in the previous facilities. As a result, the stock value is expected to increase 1.5 times to RM9 million by December 2024, up from RM5.8 million a year earlier.
The new RPC is timely as Proton sales have been increasing at a rapid pace in Sabah, with the brand’s market share in the state rising from 10% in 2018 to 25.9% in 2023, and currently stands at 27.4%.
“Proton sales in East Malaysia have multiplied by a factor of 3.1 times to 23,871 units in 2023 from 7,697 units in 2018. With 8,000 bookings for the 2024 Proton X50 under our belt, plus the upcoming 2025 Proton X70 launch this month, we foresee another increase in the state by the end of the year. Therefore, with the rise in sales leading to a higher demand for parts, the launch of a larger, more advanced parts centre will guarantee adequate parts supply not only for new vehicles but also to improve our aftersales service,” added Mr. Lim.
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Proton Parts Centre upgrades operations to improve aftersales services