IBM, SAS join to help automakers comply with TREAD Act regulations

Computerworld - IBM and business intelligence software company SAS Institute Inc. have developed a suite of software and services designed to help the auto industry better comply with new government requirements that went into effect this week, the companies said in a statement.
Under the November 2000 TREAD (Transportation Recall, Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation) Act, automakers and their suppliers must report all safety-related information -- including consumer deaths and complaints, warranty and legal claims and production data -- to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The new requirements, inspired by a rash of deadly SUV accidents caused by defective Firestone tires in 2000, went into effect April 1. The first quarterly report is due to NHTSA on Aug. 31.
Larry Stolle, IBM's global business development executive for the automotive industry, said IBM and Cary, N.C.-based SAS have the most comprehensive early-warning and warranty-analysis tool available to the auto industry.
According to Stolle, the amount of data that manufacturers are supposed to collect and analyze is daunting, and many don't have the capacity to do it. Large manufacturers will have to crunch terabytes of data to understand how to report the information they have and how to use it to improve products in the future.
Stolle said the early-warning and warranty-analysis package offered by SAS and IBM will help automakers integrate data from a wide range of sources, including service activities, customer surveys, call center contacts, production information, public records, part/product sales data and warranty information.
The tool combines SAS applications for analyzing structured data such as statistics on warranty claims with IBM software and services, including data integration tools, to analyze unstructured data such as handwritten reports, Stolle said.
He said one OEM, which he declined to name, is already using the product to pull information from 60 databases. The data is then analyzed and transformed into a final report it will submit to the NHTSA.
The product, which could cost several million dollars depending on a customer's preferences, will also help automakers harness the data to improve product design in the future, Stolle said.
Although individual automakers declined to comment on their compliance with the TREAD Act, Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Washington-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said it is too soon to assess how the industry is faring.
Kevin Prouty, an analyst at AMR Research Inc. in Boston, said IBM and SAS have built a template that allows a business to take all of its existing data and comply with the TREAD Act. "What IBM and SAS havedone is unusual because they have gone out and become domain experts on the TREAD Act and how -- if you have all this warranty data and product data -- you comply with the TREAD Act," he said.