Protecting spare parts against counterfeiting is a major topic in the automotive industry. When repair shops install cheap copies from the Far East instead of high-quality original spare parts the cars often break down and they can even cause serious accidents with far-reaching consequences. Counterfeits can give automotive companies a bad image and lead to a drop in sales and ultimately to expensive product recalls.

Expand the spare parts business, clearly mark spare parts

The most effective action against counterfeits is "prevention": To do this, car manufacturers must considerably increase their market share in the spare parts business by selling original parts at a competitive price. The order of the day is to have a flexible pricing policy. Secondly, secure labelling of original spare parts should be the rule as should be a clear classification of original spare parts for the individual vehicles. Thirdly, car customers urgently need an authorised electronic service manual showing exactly which spare parts have been installed.

Cirquent – Our support against counterfeit parts

In the fight against counterfeit parts Cirquent especially performs feasibility studies into the secure documentation of spare parts for car manufacturers: specifically, we check the possibilities of attaching an ID to the spare part and/or the packaging. Other services provided by Cirquent include process definition and process testing of the electronic documentation for the installation of original parts.

Our automotive customers also benefit from our process concepts in the repair shop and specification of the areas of application; in other words: we advise our customers about the spare parts for which it is really practical to introduce a documentation process. And last but not least, we quickly implement the solutions into the existing system environment.