Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, the Group Managing Director of Proton Holdings Berhad said that the national carmaker is in support of the recent proposal by the government for any merger to boost the local automotive industry. He said this in response to what was reported by Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the Minister of International Trade and Industry that they have conducted a study on the proposed merger of local automotive companies most notably between Proton and Perodua (Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd) and that the study is almost complete.
Syed Zainal said that as a company, more significantly the national car company, they would naturally be supportive of any move by the government to keep the industry competitive and hence they are very supportive of the move.
He was speaking at the exchange of documents ceremony between Proton and international consultant group Accenture where the Proton is set to expand and improve its ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system which will be undertaken by Accenture. The project will cost around RM40 million and is expected to take about 21 months. This is part of the company’s transformation strategy where it will involve embarking on the AMLO (Asian Multi-Local OEM) strategy to help the company position itself among the competition in the global arena.
He said that the this would be a new ERP system which will be able to connect the ecosystem of vendors in Proton’s network and it will be used to maximize their capabilities for more efficient delivery time as well as better management in procurement and manufacturing which will, at the end of the day translated to more savings in terms of cost. On top of that, they are also looking to revise their business processes in order for better efficiency and more effective decision-making while maintaining better customer responsiveness.
He also added that at the moment, the company is still in discussion with Japan’s MMC (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation) on future collaborations after the recent launch of the Proton Inspira, which is modeled after the Mitsubishi Lancer. He said that while Proton had used the Mitsubishi model to develop the new sedan, he said that it could also be possible that the collaboration could go either way with Mitsubishi using technologies from Proton.
