Effective Inventory Management Practices are the Key to Controlling Administrative Costs

It’s natural to focus on the obvious and when it comes to truck maintenance and repair, fleets often zero in on things like parts and labor expenses for vehicles and service activities. What they may be overlooking, however, is that actual service and repair processes are only part of their cost structure.

While those costs may be within your control, it’s possible that you’re overlooking the time and money spent on administrative tasks. Included are the expenses related to managing your company’s parts inventory.

Poor inventory management processes waste administrative time and money in several ways. Here are some signs to look out for to see if you need to implement  more effective programs and practices:

• Not managing parts inventory impacts shop productivity and throughput
• Higher parts management expenses lead to increased costs for labor
• Longer administrative time for inventory management can have a negative effect on asset uptime
• Unnecessary administrative time and cost reduces the amount of capital that might have been better spent in other areas of your operation
• In the long run, ineffective practices can affect customer service and satisfaction

If any of these issues are apparent in your operation, the good news is that it’s relatively easy to address them with some proven approaches:

Organize your parts — When frequently used inventory, like preventive maintenance items, and shelves and bins that hold components associated with specific systems, parts can be more easily located and your staff can fill repair order needs quickly. Parts room housekeeping also helps readily identify slow moving and obsolete parts that take up limited shelf space and raise inventory costs.

Have visibility into parts inventory — Nothing reduces asset utilization and impacts customer service unnecessarily more than having maintenance or repairs delayed because the right parts are not in stock. Knowing what’s in your inventory at all times, and looking ahead to upcoming preventive maintenance, campaign and repair needs, is essential for more effective ordering and purchasing practices. It also reduces the need for costly last minute orders.

Train parts room personnel and technicians — When your staff has the knowledge to recognize which parts are fast moving and need to be reordered more frequently, inventory needs are met more effectively. Incorporating parts inventory topics into training programs can help develop that skill. There are also parts management training programs available from industry associations.

Parts vendors can be valuable a resource

Suppliers of truck parts have a wide variety of information that can help your predict parts needs and establish effective ordering practices. Parts vendors are also now providing integrations between shop and purchasing systems that reduce the administrative time you may be spending on parts management and its hard and soft costs.

FinditParts is the largest single-source Internet distributor of heavy duty OEM and aftermarket parts. FinditParts is your partner in keeping your heavy duty truck on the road.