Family-owned and operated since 1951, Earnhardt Auto Centers had its humble beginnings selling a few Fords a month. Tex became the youngest person to receive a Ford franchise. From that first Ford Dealership in Chandler, the business has grown to nine dealerships and did nearly one billion dollars in retail sales and sold over 27,000 retail units last year.

The Dodge store has been the largest Dodge vehicle retail sales store in the world for a record nine years straight. The parts department is an important component of the Earnhardt’s success under the leadership of general manager Doll, who has been a car buff since he was a little kid. Cars have always been his hobby and as such he has been a drag racer, restored street cars and done a little bit of everything else in the car hobby field. Since he graduated from high school, he has worked in parts departments—21 years for the Earnhardts. Who better to head a parts department with an inventory valued at more than 1.2 million?
    The massive inventory is managed by the Chrysler Automatic Replenishment Order (ARO) program. The ARO signifies a relationship in which Mopar replenishes or restocks inventory based upon actual product usage and stock level information provided by Earnhardt’s parts department. The basic components of an ARO program include decision support systems, product identification technology (bar coding), and electronic data interchange (EDI).
    AROs are used to make inventory commitment more efficient. Product availability must be balanced against carrying unnecessarily high stock levels. The solution is to substitute information for inventory. Actual sales figures and buyer- supplied information trigger replenishment. This requires close cooperation between retailers and manufacturers. The trading partners must trust one another and be willing to share proprietary info.
    “The Chrysler ARO program assures that we stock parts that turn over rapidly. We have no obsolete parts,” said Doll.