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.
If you aren’t convinced that taking the time to organize your inventory and ensure processes are in place to maintain accuracy, Pro Count West has listed four ways that you will benefit from an accurate parts inventory.
An accurate parts inventory record can help confidently determine whether or not you have what you need to fix a customer’s vehicle.
This will allow you to properly estimate how long it will take to fix a customer’s vehicle, and whether you can start work now or have them bring their vehicle in another day when the parts have been ordered and delivered.
Accurate inventory management helps your parts department maintain efficient stock levels. If the records are effectively managed, the system should be able to notify them when a part gets low and needs to be re-ordered.
Accurate parts inventory records also ensure that you are minimizing obsolescence. If your records are correct, you will be able to track historical trends, over time, to determine optimal restocking numbers and times.
Maintaining proper inventory records increases customer satisfaction. From a parts perspective, if your inventory records are properly maintained, you will be able to answer parts inquiries and fill customer orders faster. If a customer has to wait longer for a response or finds out that a part they were told was in stock isn’t, it can have a negative effect on their opinion of your company.
Similarly, if you are able to quickly determine whether or not the auto part is in stock and, if necessary, how long it will take to obtain, your customer will feel more confident in your business.
Effective inventory tracking means that your staff will spend less time looking for parts and more time doing tasks that are focused on improving the parts department.
For example, if your parts department can depend on the inventory management system to provide up-to-date information, they can spend less time locating parts and more time organizing the parts storage to increase efficiency and access. This will also help them find ways to reduce inventory costs by researching new vendors or working out better deals with current vendors.
For more information on the benefits of a well-managed inventory or to have our team of inventory professionals help set you up for success, contact us today.