Jan. 17, 2011 – Categorizing and counting: Two key P&A practices
These articles recap some of the opportunities uncovered by GSA powersports consultants during actual consulting visits. These are followed by recommended actions that address these opportunities. Our goal is to provide you with ideas to help improve your dealership.
This is the third part in a series on this dealership. The first part provided an analysis of their overall operations and the second part reported on their sales and F&I departments.?This third part delves into the store’s parts and accessory department.
Dealership
The owner recently purchased this dealership and was approved for the two major product lines that they carried. The original dealership had no computers and no financials. They were underperforming and held very poor market share for this area. They also had a poor reputation with the local customers. The new owner feels there is a good potential for growth due to the dealership’s past history. Since they acquired this dealership, they have increased the market share by more than 60 percent for one of the lines. However, most of their unit sales have been for very low margins as they have had to clean out noncurrent inventory (some up to six years old).
The local town has only about 10,000 people. However, the market area has a population of more than 300,000. They have purchased a new facility with frontage on a major highway. It is currently under remodeling construction. They plan to move in the next few months.
They have a lot of work to do in order to make this into a profitable dealership. Their sales volume is small and there are poor margins in nearly all departments. They have no inventory management and no personnel management structure.
Analysis
As with the other departments, there is no manager. Pete is the entire department. He has been since he was a small boy. He worked for another dealership in the area for several years and has been with this dealership for the past few years. He could use some additional training and guidance in the procedures desired by the new owner.
The lack of proper categorization of the parts, clothing and accessories numbers in the DMS means that many of the measurements we received in the pre-work have questionable validity. In addition, some of the reported numbers are simply not possible. It will take some effort to uncover whether these are personnel or DMS issues. Proper categorization methods were discussed.
There are no bin locations and no cycle-counting. The implementation of this was discussed in detail. The inventory accuracy needs to be verified by a full inventory and parts obsolescence needs to be measured. Their DMS software would not report the valuation of the obsolete parts. After discussion with the DMS supplier, they assured us they will fix this report. Once the obsolete parts can be verified, they need to be disposed of by selling them, donating them or trashing them. They have no use to the dealership other than as a write-down. It is recommended that a dealership carry no more than 15 percent obsolescence. P&A is not being sold at retail to other departments. This needs to be corrected so that measurements can be compared with industry standards.
OE hard parts orders are not placed on a daily basis. Some manufacturers have sizable penalties for ordering less than the minimum. Other sources should be sought for small orders if they are holding up service jobs.
Action Items
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