How do you know whether your parts inventory is performing well?

Looking at total inventory dollars doesn't tell you much by itself. Neither does comparing your dealership with a store operating under completely different manufacturer rules.

That's why PartsEdge took a manufacturer-specific approach in our latest inventory analysis.

The Ultimate OEM Inventory Showdown analyzed 223 dealerships across 15 manufacturers representing more than $190 million in parts inventory value. To be included in the primary manufacturer comparison, PartsEdge required at least five participating dealerships from that manufacturer.

The goal wasn't to declare one manufacturer the winner.

It was to give Parts Managers better context for understanding their own inventory.

Productive, Excess, Forced and Obsolete

The webinar examined inventory across several categories.

Productive inventory was defined for the analysis as active inventory with three or more sales during the previous 12 months. Idle inventory was broken into excess, forced stock/unfulfilled demand and obsolete inventory.

PartsEdge also separated manufacturer-controlled ASR inventory from non-ASR inventory.

That distinction matters because the rules governing those two groups can be very different.

Compare Like With Like

At the end of the webinar, PartsEdge demonstrated the concept using a Chrysler dealership.

Approximately 62% of that dealership's inventory was ASR-controlled, while 31.42% was non-ASR-controlled.

PartsEdge then compared its productive inventory with the other Chrysler dealerships in the dataset. The average Chrysler store in the PartsEdge data had approximately $285,000 in productive inventory, with 53% of ASR inventory classified as productive.

The example dealership was at 62% - nine percentage points above the manufacturer average in the PartsEdge dataset.

That's a much different conversation than simply asking whether the dealership has “too much inventory.”

Benchmark Your Dealership Against Your Manufacturer

Every manufacturer has different programs, requirements and inventory behavior. The webinar data showed just how significant those differences can be.

That's why the most useful comparison may not be your dealership against an arbitrary industry number.

It may be understanding how your productive inventory, excess inventory, forced stock and obsolescence compare with dealerships operating under the same manufacturer environment.

PartsEdge is currently offering dealerships a no-cost, one-time inventory analysis using the same manufacturer data presented during the webinar. The analysis breaks inventory into productive, ASR/non-ASR, excess, forced-stock and 13-month/no-sale, 13-month/no-receipt obsolescence categories.

Want to know where your dealership lands? Watch the full webinar, then reach out for your free manufacturer benchmark: PartsEdge Inventory Analysis. Register for the next webinar so you don’t miss a single webinar!