What's the top challenge you face as a parts manager?
I'd have to say the people. Hiring good people, finding good people, and keeping them managed the way I want to.
Do you do much wholesale business?
They didn't have too much when I first got here. We've pretty much built it up since I've been here. We're working on our first $100,000 month. We service the local area here, and I think we go out about 20 miles. We don't have scheduled deliveries. We do hot-shot deliveries like the auto parts stores.
Do you service mostly body shop or mechanical customers?
Both. We have more on the mechanical side.
How did you build up the business?
Telemarketing and some advertising. We also have a company that sends out decals for telephones and Rolodex cards, and that's worked pretty well.
How do you ensure the wholesale business is profitable?
I watch it every day, making sure the customers get the right price, and that it's a price that we can live with profit-wise. We try to give the customer the best price they can get.
Do you have to do much customer evaluation, in terms of their financial solvency and ability to pay?
We're just starting to run into that. Being in the Washington, D.C., area, there's money flowing around here all the time. We're just starting to run into some of shops that we've had to put on COD. There aren't that many of them. If I put a shop on COD or cash only, within a couple of months they are usually not around anymore.
Has dealership consolidation impacted your business at all in terms of volume?
Not so much consolidation; it's more like they're just walking away from them. We've had two in the past couple of months not far from us where the property was worth more than the dealership was doing in sales. They just sold the property off, turned the franchise in and they were done.
What software systems are you using to manage the business?
Reynolds & Reynolds is our DMS, and we use Snap-On Business Solutions for our catalog. I also have CollisionLink and D2DLink, which is an OEConnection product for dealers. I'm a test market area for RepairLink, which is CollisionLink for fleets and large mechanical repair shops.
It's nice because if somebody puts an order in, I get an e-mail. I have my e-mail set up so it's open all day. My computer tells me when there's an e-mail. I can go into e-mail, click on it, look up the parts, send an answer back and have the parts to them before they realize I did anything.
General Motors and Chrysler have rolled out new centralized systems for parts inventory management. Has Ford done anything like this?
No, but they just started a system for Motorcraft parts through D2DLink where I can set up my Motorcraft distributor and tell him what parts I want to keep in stock. At night, when they pull my D2DLink (information), he gets an order for stuff that I'm out of stock on.