Every automotive repair shop sells two types of inventory. The first one is the tangible, physical parts on the shelf. The second type of inventory is time. At the beginning of the day, I know how much time is available to sell to my clients. The trouble with time is that once it is past, it no longer can be sold or returned. Every time we quote an estimate, we guess how much time will be needed to complete that job. That time is sold to the client along with the parts required to get the vehicle back on the road.
The goal throughout the day is to bill at least 100 percent of the time available to the clients. The trouble is there are a lot of factors that can rob us of billable time. Some of the things that rob us of our valuable time range from poor employee work habits to the tool truck salesmen hawking their wares in the shop. A shop owner can take steps to control the time-robbers by recognizing the things that waste time and then implementing a plan to reduce this wasted time.
Another time-robber that is harder for a shop owner or manager to control has to do with parts acquisition. A large percentage of the day is spent ordering and waiting for parts. Having the parts readily available to us, in the least amount of time, is critical to minimizing wasted time.
Most shops have a basic inventory that will provide coverage for fast-moving maintenance items such as filters, belts and bulbs. As a rule, I try to avoid stocking any parts that take longer than a half-hour to install. If it is a part that takes longer than a half-hour to install, I will rely on my part suppliers to hot shot it to me. In cases where a part cannot be delivered in the timeframe necessary, I have a driver on staff who shuttles our clients to work or home and picks up the part. I have the luxury of being located in a highly populated suburban area that allows access to a multitude of parts suppliers, including almost every OE dealer that sells cars in the United States. I understand that keeping a bare bones inventory is harder to do in more rural parts of the country.
Online parts ordering has helped reduce wasted time in building estimates and ordering parts. Before online access, we would have to call to get the most current price and availability of needed parts. Sometimes we had to wait for a call back with the information. Now this can be done at a much more efficient level using online cataloging.
I hope as technology gets more refined that software programs can be designed to anticipate part purchases and predict inventory needs. This information can be based on the history of parts purchased by the installing shop, purchases by other shops in the surrounding area and the vehicles populating the shop's database. Information also can be obtained from repair databases such as iATN and Identifix. When all this information is calculated, the end result would be the right part on the shelf at the right time.
We need to take advantage of technical advances in order to improve our efficiency. The less time it takes to acquire parts translates to higher profits.
Chuck Hartogh is president and founder of C&M Auto Service Inc. of Glenview, Ill. He is an ASE-Certified Master, L1 Technician.
