In today’s competitive automotive retail landscape, an efficient and well-managed Parts department is another area of your business that is often overlooked where you can automate and drive significant savings and additional sales. Utilising fully integrated parts software solutions will allow you to improve the way you run your parts operation. There are definitely opportunities when you look under the covers of automotive Parts departments and warehouses to reduce ongoing fixed operations costs, increase sales and customer satisfaction.

If you are you looking for greater visibility and improved productivity within your Parts department, here are some points to consider around implementing labelling and scanning technologies at your dealership:

EFFICIENCY

Using barcode and scanning solutions that are integrated to your dealer management system can help streamline your entire Parts department. You can easily create labels, anticipate stock inventory refills, simplify your stocktake process and unpack inventory quicker by up to 60% when you implement the right scanning units in your Parts department. With the right software, all parts data is instantaneously available for actionable stock management, especially around obsolescence.

VISIBILITY

Through parts labelling, dealerships can create their own labels for those parts stocked that do not have their own barcode. For your parts order unpacking process, you can gain speed and transparency with the ability to check on progress and see the audit trail of who unpacked what and location errors with minimal effort.

Have you also considered wireless picking devices to drive efficiency and visibility in your Parts department? The picking device allows you to confirm the correct location and/or part numbers by barcode. It provides immediate notifications of any discrepancy and the ability for management to easily view the pickers’ performance through detailed productivity reports. All transactions are date and time stamped in order to always have a trail of the changes made.

ACCURACY

It is critical for you to know what parts are in stock and your physical inventory should be in balance with what you have in your dealer management system. Being able to accurately identify the locations of your stock will save your Parts department time in put-away and order picking.

Using a fully integrated parts solution will ensure all information is only keyed once and is updated across the entire system. All parts pricing and details need to be updated in real time, meaning you never have to second guess whether you are looking at the correct figures. As a result, errors in invoicing will be significantly reduced which means your team is spending less time in rectifying problems with incorrect orders.

To summarise, spend some time in your Parts department or warehouse and look for areas you can improve. Some changes to processes and workflows can make a huge impact to your bottom line. A fully optimised Parts department can help generate significant additional revenue and higher profit margins.

An effective spare parts automation strategy will provide transparency in the management of your Parts department that can help save you time, money and increase staff productivity.

Learn more about our Parts Solutions here.