Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A17

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 | 17
D e L U C A T O YO TA , O C A L A , F L A .

Store puts service parts near its techs
Modules close to the bays
help jobs get done faster,
improve productivity
Published in Automotive News Feb. 18, 2019

Richard Truett
rtruett@crain.com

hen DeLuca Toyota in Ocala,
Fla., was remodeled four years
ago, Vera Sandiford, fixed operations manager, had an idea that
she believed would increase technicians' productivity: Move parts closer to them.
DeLuca's service department is longer than
a football field, with bays on the left and right.
Before the remodeling, the parts department
was in the same building, but far from most of
the bays, and technicians spent a lot of time
walking instead of wrenching.
Today, each end of the service department
has a structure the size of a standard repair
bay that the dealership calls a POD - for Parts
on Demand - module. The PODs stock everything from rotors to motors, fuses to fascias
and radiators to radios.

Nate Mills, a service technician at DeLuca Toyota, picks up a part from a module near the service
bays. DeLuca's fixed ops chief calls each module "a little parts department in the middle of the shop."
DeLuca Toyota in Ocala, Fla., has
moved nearly $200,000 worth of
parts into the service department
where they are just steps away from
the technicians who install them.

Parts runners
"We had been talking for years about how
we could get the parts to the techs quicker,"
Sandiford said. "We had parts runners. We'd
put the oil filters on their work bench." But
that wasn't enough to boost DeLuca's
throughput. Last year the store's service department wrote nearly 35,000 repair orders.
"What I came up with was having a little
parts department in the middle of the shop,"
Sandiford said.
DeLuca, which sold 2,937 new and 1,210 used
vehicles in 2018, is not the only store that has
moved to streamline technicians retrieving
parts.
At Motorcars Honda in Cleveland Heights,
Ohio, for example, parts lockers are used on
the quick lube line, allowing fast access to
components such as cabin air filters, wiper
blades, headlights and other high-volume
maintenance items.
When a part is removed from the locker, it is
automatically placed on the repair order. But
the parts lockers focus on smaller maintenance
items. So a water pump or a muffler won't fit.
At Shaheen Chevrolet in Lansing, Mich.,
technicians order parts on the service department floor from a parts department employee

who has a mobile computer mounted on a
cart. Those parts are delivered to the technicians' stations.
But DeLuca's pods offer one of the most
comprehensive solutions to putting parts
near technicians.
Sandiford said she consulted with the fixed
ops experts at Southeast Toyota Distributors,
the factory distributor that supports her store.
Then she drew sketches of how she envisioned the pods looking. To build the PODs,
she turned to Deluxe Systems Inc., a Tampa
company that custom manufactures mobile
storage equipment.

Restocked each night
The storage units are made of aluminum,
painted red and equipped with stainless steel
parts counters and high-density storage bins.
They are also lockable to secure the inventory
when the store is closed. One POD is set up for
technicians who deal mostly with recall work,
and the other handles parts that fill orders for
routine scheduled maintenance and repairs.
The two units hold nearly $200,000 worth of
parts, representing nearly 1,000 parts numbers.
Both PODs are restocked each night.

Having parts closer to the technicians has a
number of benefits, Sandiford said. Technicians spend more time wrenching and less time
retrieving parts. DeLuca's shop foreman, Ron
Adams, estimates that 20 full-time technicians
save 10 to 15 hours a week from not having to
walk to the parts department. That translates to
at least two minutes per repair ticket.

Less wasted time
Sandiford also says the technicians spend
less time chitchatting.
"This eliminates what traditionally happens at
the parts counter," Sandiford said. "If you get
four or five techs back there, they are going to
start talking about the Super Bowl, or this movie
or that movie. The parts person is going to join in
and no one is doing anything. It's wasted time."
And because technicians aren't in the parts
department tying up personnel, over-thecounter sales to retail customers are faster.
The technicians are assigned to specific parts
staffers stationed at the PODs. That relationship
improves productivity because one person
handles each technician's parts request.
Adams estimates the PODs are saving at
least $4,000 per technician per year.
"The whole idea is convenience and speed,"
he said. "By the time the car gets into the shop,
the parts are there. They are pulled and put
onto the repair order."
Sandiford says she doesn't mind sharing her
results in boosted productivity with other dealers. She has given service department tours to
dealers who sell Kia, Ford and Lincoln. a

Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement

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