Mike's Inventory Management Blog

An important part of maintaining a productive automotive repair shop is inventory management. Without it, you will spend an unnecessary amount of time looking for and waiting on parts, minimizing efficiency and reducing income.

A poorly managed inventory may even cause you to lose valuable customers to competitors, who are more organized and able to better serve and communicate with your clients.

With the speed at which we innovate new and more efficient vehicles and engines, obsolescence is an ongoing issue in the automotive industry - tying up capital and creating losses.

To optimize your inventory, it is important to identify low turning stock using inventory turnover which denotes how many times your inventory is sold and replaced in a specified period of time.

Accuracy is everything when dealing with your auto parts inventories but often times, there are discrepancies between your general ledger (GL) and your dealer management system (DMS) that can have a significant effect on customer satisfaction and profits.

When someone says physical inventory count the first thing most parts department employees and managers think of is your year-end count, also referred to as a full count - when everything seems to get put on hold for the tediousness of ensuring your actual inventory matches the books.

We have all heard about the benefits of scanning technology when managing auto parts inventory - it ensures you have the most accurate data, simplifies inventory counts and helps you get a better idea of your inventory position. The problem is, it can also be very expensive.

Now, you can enjoy all the benefits without the capital spend. Pro Count West is modernizing and keeping up with industry technology to make the job easier. 

Now, more than ever, customer service is imperative to the success of your business. With 90% of consumers reading reviews online before even visiting a business, it is critical that your business leaves a good impression on its customers. The way you run your parts department plays a big role in that.

Automotive parts inventory is constantly flowing in and out of your department. To ensure that your records are properly maintained to meet your specific goals, it is important that it is properly valued, and in some instances, devalued. 

As a parts manager, one of your key responsibilities is optimizing parts costs and minimizing lost revenues. This can include sourcing vendors who offer the same product at a better price, minimizing shipping costs through bulk ordering, and reducing obsolescence.

Another effective way to optimize costs and minimize lost revenue is through the proper management of core inventory. 

Before you can run an efficient parts department, it is important to ensure that everyone on your team is using, and understands, common parts department lingo.

This will ensure that your team is communicating effectively, and it will help to minimize the number of human errors that often result from a lack of understanding or knowledge. 

In our recent blog, titled ‘How to Prepare Your Inventory for a Physical Count - Part 1’, we gave you some tips on how to prepare for your upcoming physical inventory. Now we continue with those tips with the second part of the list.