What Service Data Can Tell You About Parts Performance

The trucking industry produces vast amounts of data. From transportation and maintenance management software to enterprise solutions and increasingly on-board telematics, there is an abundance of information available to make more informed choices and decisions.

But there is also a well-founded concern about data overload. The adage, “garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind because it’s a real thing. With so much information available, it’s understandable why it can be hard to make sense of it all.

So how do you turn data into actionable information?

Today, we’re hearing more and more about Business Intelligence, a technology-driven process for gathering and analyzing data and presenting it in a way that allows you to have visibility that can drive efficiencies across your organization. Even the best and most advanced BI systems, though, aren’t effective unless you start by asking the right questions.

Creating reports that can be used to help manage your business more effectively begins with knowing what you need to know. Here are some questions to ask:

• What management or business process does the data need to support?
• Are the answers you need for a given point in time or for long-term trend analysis?
• What data do you need to include, in which systems or parts of your operation can it be located, and how will it be analyzed and presented?
• Are there related items, based on the same data, which could be included to help in other areas of your operation?

Look to your parts suppliers as a valuable source of knowledge

In the parts aftermarket, suppliers and distributors generate a large amount of useful data about the performance of their products; data you can tap into to improve your operation. It’s there for the asking.

Suppliers are a great source of data because they’re able to identify trends and purchasing practices on an individual fleet or service operation level, as well as compare it to regional and national benchmarks in real time and over the long run. By making that data available to you, supplier make it possible to track, analyze and manage parts performance.

Here are some examples of reports that will give you a better understanding of parts performance:

• Pricing by vendor, location and purchasing program
• Cost per mile
• Cost per vehicle
• Cost by location
• Costs for routine maintenance items
• Warranty claims per part (including replacement items)
• Parts delivery times (to determine the impact on the number of open work orders)

Working with your parts provider you can find ways to improve the productivity of your vehicle maintenance and repair operations, and lower costs. The only real challenge is knowing what data you need by asking the right questions.

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.