by Larry Williams
This is Part 2 of last month’s article directed to dealership parts managers directly managing employees handling both mechanical and collision parts, however, the same principles apply to parts management in a body shop. To read Part 1, see Autobody News, April 2010 edition or look online at www.autobodynews.com.
Larry Williams is a former parts manager and consultant who has received national awards during his 40 years of creating profitable departments. He can be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Making the most profit out of your inventory is easy, and once set up properly, needs minimum maintenance. Making the best profit out of your personnel is the hard part. This is why I spend most of my effort on my people.
The hardest part of any profession is learning the language. The various terminologies used to communicate needs. Auto parts is one of the hardest, a language of multiple words for the same item. Controller, solenoid, actuator, module, ECU, etc. can all used to describe the same object. Only a few years ago Ford started a program to unify parts terminology. Now all departments, design, engineering, manufacturing, service and parts would all refer to a part by one name. Manufacturers have been in business almost a hundred years, and only now are addressing the problem. Same thing with new models…all kinds of information for sales and service, nothing for parts education. Everyone must learn on the job.
Click to download full article in PDF format. Article is printable but cannot be copied or modified.
