Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85369
PARTS MANAGEMENT AT WENSEL TRUCK CENTERS, THE COUNTER STAFF FINDS OUT WHICH PARTS ARE ON THE SHELVES. 5: CREATE A PLAN FOR TECHS Another key to a profitable parts inventory is standard- izing a way to shuttle parts and parts requests from technicians to the parts department – and vice versa. Operating an efficient parts department is dif- ficult enough; there's no need to make it harder with miscommunication. Empire's technicians use an electronic requisition form to request parts from 6: CONSIDER OUTSOURCING Another possibility to consider when streamlining parts inventory is simply to outsource the operation completely. Pressures to reduce operating costs have led to the elimi- nation of the position of parts manager at many fleets, leaving the task of handling a major-expense line item to the fleet owner or manager. One outsourcing system now gaining traction with fleets is vendor-managed inventory, where the manufacturer or supply distributor maintains all or part of a fleet's inven- tory. The system was implemented in the 1980s by large corporations like Wal-Mart and has become standard in segments of the retail industry. "It is now on the upswing in the aftermarket truck parts industry," says David Nitzsche, vice president of supply management for AmeriQuest Transportation Services. Most of the top heavy-duty truck parts suppliers have ac- tive VMI programs, while more than 70 percent of the top 100 distributors have them, Nitzsche says. The vendor monitors a fleet's sales and inventory levels and manages reordering calculations based on actual demand, lead time and other factors. The system then rec- ommends parts that need to be replenished and places the 64 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | APRIL 2012 orders. Both the supplier and fleet keep communications to a minimum, confining it to exceptional situations. "VMI makes sense to a fleet because it frees up person- nel for other tasks," Nitzsche says. The parts supplier provides scanning devices, barcode labels and other technologies so that the fleet always has real-time data on inventory levels; the data triggers a replacement cycle as needed. For fleets with multiple locations, the system can determine when one part is sitting unused in one location when it may be needed in another; the part can be pulled and transported, automatically triggering a reorder as needed. One of the biggest benefits to a fleet is visibility of parts inventory, Nitzsche says. "Overstocked or unused parts are really dollars sitting on a shelf," he says. "Those dollars also may be obsolete parts that will eventually be sold for perhaps 20 percent on the dollar, costing the fleet 80 percent of their value." A computerized system recognizes when a part is near obsolescence and will trade it for a new part when appro- priate. Some suppliers also provide parts on consignment and will charge only for what is used, Nitzsche says. the warehouse without leaving their service bays; parts employees then fill the requests and bring the parts to the technicians. Once a part has been provided to a technician, it is added to the rush-order ledger and reordered for the next incoming stock order. Parts requested by the technician but not in stock are ordered by the parts de- partment, and the comput- erized system then notifies the technician of the rush order. The system keeps the parts department in charge of actual parts ordering and inventory, and allows the technicians to focus their attention on repairs. At Wensel Truck Centers, technicians manually fill out a parts request form that they provide to the parts department; from there, the counter staff finds which parts are on the shelves and which ones need to be ordered. "Sometimes the techs will speak with the counter people to show them what they need so the counter guys know exactly what to get, but we don't want them too involved with ordering parts," Wensel says. "The best way for our shop to be productive is for our technicians to be working on trucks."