When people first hear about Partly, they often ask “Why has no one done this before?”. The answer is simple; it’s extremely difficult. So difficult that it likely wouldn’t have even been possible 10 years ago.
Q: What is Partly Interpreter?
Partly Interpreter is an intelligent parts interpreter.
Currently, the auto parts industry employs ~17 million parts interpreters whose full-time job is to research the right parts for a job. This is a manual and labour-intensive process that takes 23 minutes on average. (We’ve also seen part interpreters take a lot longer.)
Partly Interpreter finds the right parts for the job instantly.
Q: Why has this not been done before?
People often ask this question!
The answer is simple; it’s extremely difficult.
Partly Interpreter involves building a global, universal Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC) from the ground up. In other words, we need to structure and standardise all the world's automotive parts data into a single, cohesive standard - something the automotive industry previously considered impossible.
Recent advances in AI and machine learning have made this once intractable problem solvable for the first time. This allows us to chart entirely new territory, reimagining and delivering a completely new experience for the entire automotive industry.
Q: Why is this so difficult
This problem is extremely hard for several reasons,
- The data problem is massive.
There are thousands of vehicle manufacturers and tens of thousands of part manufacturers, each using their own (often inconsistent) standard for cataloging parts. There are billions of vehicles on the road with hundreds of millions of unique configurations. Every edge case must be accounted for. If we can only find 95% of the parts, we can’t complete the job. To provide the best buyer experience, we need highly robust and performant systems that can handle these enormous datasets in real time. Solutions that work at the scale of most startups break down at our scale. Every abstraction becomes a leaky abstraction.
- Existing catalogs are not designed to integrate with software.
Current EPCs (Electronic Parts Catalogs) rely on human expert parts interpreters and are difficult to use. Very few buyers, whether repairers, damage assessors, or drivers, are parts experts. Even for those who are, it’s impossible to be an expert across all makes and models. Many parts are difficult to describe or name, and have nuanced properties affecting vehicle compatibility. Often, crucial information is not structured and only exists in diagrams, raw text notes, or other non-standard formats. - Vehicles are complex.
Cars (along with trucks, motorcycles, etc.) are intricate feats of engineering. Almost every vehicle is designed by hundreds or thousands of engineers. We need to internalize as much of this complexity as possible to provide the correct parts.
Q: How does your team work with other teams at Partly?
The Partly Interpreter team is fundamental to Partly and is organised as a vertical hybrid engineering and data team.
We have several sub-teams, including:
- Domain experts who design our vehicle and part standardization, as well as create training datasets for labelling.
- The classifications team, which uses data science to operate at scale.
- The engineering team, which builds end-to-end user experiences that leverage our unique datasets and algorithms.
We collaborate closely with other engineering teams at Partly, including the supply selection team, which uses our precise parts interpretation system to provide real-time pricing and availability information across all suppliers.
Q: What has the industry response to Partly Interpreter been?
Often, when we first talk to prospective customers and partners in the industry, their response is something like: “Partly’s solution addresses our biggest pain points, but we know how difficult this problem is—until we see it in action, we can’t believe you can do what you claim.”
The Partly Interpreter team is solving one of the most complex challenges in the automotive industry. By making it easier for repairers to find the right part, Partly can significantly reduce the enormous waste headed to landfills and unlock substantial value for the entire parts supply chain.
Find out more about how you can help disrupt an industry with us:
https://www.partly.com/careers/careers-at-partly
