If you’re a parts manager on an auto-replenishment program such as GM’s RIM program or Chrysler’s ARO, one great question to ask yourself is “Do I totally rely on the replenishment program to restock my inventory shelves?”
Aside from special order parts for specific customers, for most parts managers who work with these manufacturer programs, the answer is typically “no”! When we review the parts that their manufacturer does not control in their inventory, there are plenty of parts that are active and selling which are not automatically replenished by their manufacturer programs.
What do you do when you run out of one of those parts? What we have discovered is that the part is usually put on a special order, or purchased locally from another dealership with an emergency purchase if needed quickly.
While it would seem petty to do a stock order as these parts barely hit the radar, start adding these up and they can affect your fill rate. It doesn’t take much time to run that old stock order program in your DMS system. One thing you could do to make this work accurately is to isolate these non-controlled parts into a source, or group of sources to set a realistic day’s supply and phase in criteria. Then, run a stock order daily and submit. While this might only be a handful of parts, they add up!
If you don’t believe it, test it! Even if you have 4 to 10 parts that show up on this order daily, add that times 20 working days and you have 80 parts that might need to be replenished sooner rather than later -especially if these are the ones you’ve been picking up from your competitors.
Want to learn more about how to improve your fill rate? Give us a ring today!