Fixed Ops Journal - April 2021 - F11

Parts process

Ganley Westside Subaru uses PartsEye to track
parts used by techs such as Darrin Vandergrif.

the guesswork out of maintaining inventory. It
also keeps us compliant with various parameters in a GM parts-purchasing loyalty program, which earns us discounts and other
back-end benefits. "
With GM RIM, the dealership maintains an
off-the-shelf fill rate in the low-90 percent
range. In addition, the store rarely has to special-order parts, and parts obsolescence is not
an issue, Earley says.
" GM RIM keeps our inventory very clean and orderly, " he says.
As Earley noted, some
automakers require dealers to use their in-house
technology. But many other dealers that don't have
such a requirement use Klugh: PartsEye
Klugh's PartsEye system.
can spot trends
PartsEye counts a dozen
automakers - including Subaru, Kia, Hyundai,
management degree, " he says.
Mazda and Mitsubishi - and roughly 5,000
There essentially are two kinds of remote indealerships nationwide as customers. The sysventory management services used by dealtem is compatible with more than 40 dealership
ers: the aforementioned PartsEye and automanagement system platforms, Klugh says.
makers' in-house systems, such as MerIndividual dealers pay $695 a
cedes-Benz StockPro and GM RIM.
month for the service; Klugh says auSome automakers encourage dealers
tomakers that use the technology typto use their remote inventory manically sell the service to dealerships at
agement by giving them back-end ina lower price.
centives if they comply with suggestPartsEye aggregates purchase data
ed levels of parts inventory.
culled from a store's DMS demand
" Manufacturers felt they had to step
history, then compares it with purin to make sure customer expectachasing trends at many similarly
tions were being met in terms of
timely repairs, " Crossin says. " So they Crossin: RIM is a sized local and regional stores that
came up with their own criteria to " polarizing topic " sell the same brand. It relies on complex algorithms and is akin to mamove the supply chain to the dealers,
chine learning, Klugh says.
rather than relying on the manufacturers to
" The best parts manager only sees moveovernight parts to them. "
ment within his store, " he says. " But we see it
Dan Earley, parts director at Shaheen Chevacross many avenues of distribution ... and
rolet in Lansing, Mich., says the dealership uscan see developing trends that parts manages GM RIM, as mandated by General Motors.
ers can't see. "
" My purchasing guy loves it, " he says. " It
Crossin says remote inventory management
makes his job much easier and takes a lot of

Best practices when using remote
inventory management
 Be sure sales data and on-hand
inventory counts are accurate.
 Close out sales invoices and repair
orders as quickly as possible.
 Implement regular cycle counts (bin
checks).
 Always post lost sales to ensure the
newest parts get stocked.
 Don't be afraid to override parts-buying
suggestions based on budget or space
limitations.
 Use time saved to manage other
critical areas of your department.
 Ensure that all parts that could have
been sold are properly tracked in the
DMS.
 Don't overstock fast-moving parts at
the expense of a broad inventory mix.
 If a DMS recommends a part and RIM
doesn't, research it and evaluate the
business case.
 Stay current on system training.
 Trust the process; let the system work.
Source: Brian Crossin, NADA; Stephen Webb, Priority
Hyundai; Bryan Klugh, PartsEye

isn't necessarily the end-all and be-all to effective stock management.
" If you interview parts managers, you'd probably get a mixed bag of reviews, " he says. " It's a
polarizing topic. Some love it, some hate it. "
On the " love " side of the ledger, Crossin
says, is that some parts managers appreciate
how it helps them run a better inventory or
gives insightful stocking suggestions.
" Other parts managers don't like it because
they feel it forces them to stock parts that they
wouldn't normally stock and they'd prefer to
make their own stocking
decisions, " he says.
Count Joe Joyce among
the former. The parts manager for Ganley Westside
Subaru in North Olmsted,
Ohio, says PartsEye dramatically simplifies parts
ordering and boosted key
inventory metrics in his Joyce: Helps
department.
save a lot of time
Joyce says it's " mindblowing " how much easier it is to order parts
and manage inventory with PartsEye compared
with how he did it at his previous job.
" I had to go through big, nonsensical 10- to
15-page reports and manually check every
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Fixed Ops Journal - April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - April 2021