Dealerships are finally catching on: the parts department isn’t a back-office function anymore — it’s the heartbeat of fixed ops success.
At this year’s Fixed Ops Roundtable, I joined leaders across the industry to unpack why parts are becoming the central profit lever for dealerships and what forward-thinking managers are doing to get ahead.
This blog recaps the insights from two powerful conversations.
Below is the first — and the moment you send the second transcript, I’ll write that one next.
Featuring Ted Ings & Sarah Vantine hosts of The Fixed Ops Roundtable with Kaylee Felio
If you’ve been around the industry long enough, you know parts has always mattered — but it hasn’t always been recognized. In this panel, Ted, Sarah, and Kaylee dug into why that’s shifting, what’s driving the momentum, and how dealerships can finally get the ROI they’ve been sitting on for years.
Ted opened with the reality: sales may make noise, but parts keeps the dealership stable. Today, leaders across the country (and even financial institutions) are finally treating parts as a growth engine rather than a cost center.
Drivers are keeping their vehicles longer, prioritizing repairs, and relying on service departments more than ever. That means parts demand is skyrocketing — and dealerships who invest today will benefit for years.
Kaylee shared what she sees daily across dealerships: extremely smart parts managers working in incredibly chaotic environments. Not because they lack skill — but because they lack support.
PartsEdge exists to fix that gap. By giving managers clarity, structure, and daily optimization, they get the power to:
Reduce obsolescence
Improve profit
Tighten processes
Increase tech efficiency
Make smarter inventory decisions
Build a healthier mix of productive stock
One of the biggest takeaways:
Dealers don’t need more parts. They need the right parts.
We discussed how only 20% of inventory typically generates 80% of profit, and how shifting more items into that productive mix unlocks immediate gains.
Kaylee also shared the key data points parts managers must monitor weekly — including demand trends, aging stock, return eligibility, and special orders — and how PartsEdge turns all of that data into action, not overwhelm.
“The next 10 years of dealership growth are won in Fixed Ops.” — Ted Ings