A smooth physical inventory is not luck. It is the result of a handful of things done in the right order, starting weeks before the count team arrives. Here is a timeline you can put on the wall. 8 WEEKS OUT: Lock in your date and clean up your data. Confirm the inventory date with […]
In Part One we covered why gross profit is the last number to warn you. Here are the ones that warn you first. Inventory accuracy. Bin check results tell you whether your DMS matches the shelf. When the system says 12 and the bin holds 10, replenishment orders the wrong quantity, fill rate drops, and […]
That may not be entirely fair. Gross profit matters, and no one should run a parts department without watching it. But it is the last number to tell you something has gone wrong. Ask most general managers which parts department numbers they care about and you will hear the same two: gross profit and gross […]
In Part One we covered the KPIs that separate high-performing parts departments from consistently underperforming ones. In Part Two we tackle the question that every parts manager eventually runs into: which of these numbers does my DMS actually produce, and which ones am I going to have to figure out on my own? The answer […]
Ask ten parts managers which numbers they watch most closely and you will get ten different answers. Ask the same question of the ten best parts managers in any dealer twenty group and the answers will start to look remarkably similar. The difference between a department that performs consistently at a high level and one […]
Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War roughly 2,500 years ago as a guide for military commanders navigating conflict, strategy, and the unpredictable nature of human behavior. He could not have imagined the automobile dealership. And yet, if you pick up his book today and read it through the lens of a dealership parts manager, […]
The growth of e-commerce has touched virtually every retail category in the American economy, and automotive parts are no exception. Consumers who once had no choice but to walk into a dealership parts counter or call their local auto parts store can now comparison shop dozens of sources from their phone in under two minutes. […]
A dealer management system changeover is one of the most disruptive events a dealership parts department can experience. Done well, it is a temporary inconvenience that leads to a significantly better operation. Done poorly, it creates months of data integrity problems, inventory discrepancies, and operational chaos that can take years to fully untangle. The difference […]
Taking over a poorly run parts department is one of the most challenging assignments in the dealership business. The inventory is bloated or inaccurate — possibly both. The bin locations are a disaster. The special order shelf looks like a parts graveyard. Obsolescence has been ignored for years. The relationship between parts and service is […]
It happens in every parts department, every single day. You check your DMS, it shows a quantity on hand of 12, you walk to the bin, and you count 10. The instinct — especially for a newer parts manager — is to immediately adjust the DMS quantity down to match what is physically in the […]