How to Streamline Parts Management for Your Auto Dealership?

You’ll be surprised to learn that in the first half of 2023, the total service and parts sales of dealerships in the U.S. was more than $73 billion [Source].

The data proves that the demand for automobiles and spare parts is only going to rise each year and this makes the automotive industry lucrative.

But what drives some automotive businesses to success while others are holding onto the grab handles trying to move ahead of the competition?

They have a successful parts management system that keeps their inventory streamlined.

A well-managed inventory not only impacts the operational efficiency of your automotive business but also helps in cost control, meeting regulatory requirements, and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Without a parts management solution, your work is cut out for you. Imagine trying to keep track of all the parts that go into an automobile using a pen and paper. Can’t, right?

That’s why, in this blog, we will uncover the beauty of a successful parts management solution and how Autosoft DMS is leading this race, one answer at a time.

Key Challenges Dealerships Face During Inventory Management

Dealership inventory tracking and management is not a one-man or one-team job, it requires the collective wisdom of technology and those who use it.

Especially in today’s dynamic world where Excel sheets and docs will only get you so far, dealerships constantly face challenges in keeping inventory streamlined.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest challenges they face and nod a yes if you have faced at least one of the following difficulties.

1. Overstocking

Not knowing the trend and demand for certain parts and accessories can result in overstocking of these items. Additionally, overstocking can result in these parts becoming outdated.

Maintaining excess inventory ties up a significant amount of capital that could be used for other investments or operational needs. This can limit your dealership’s ability to seize opportunities or respond to financial challenges.

2. Understocking

Imagine having to turn down a customer for a part that is not in your inventory according to your records. Not knowing the current demands and trends can result in your dealership not keeping enough quantities of vehicle parts and accessories in the inventory to meet customer demand.

The most immediate and obvious impact of understocking is lost sales. Customers may go elsewhere, resulting in missed revenue opportunities. Over time, this can significantly impact the dealership’s bottom line. This, in turn, results in customer dissatisfaction and hurts your dealership’s reputation.

3. Supply Chain Disruptions

When there’s a disruption in the supply of parts and accessories to your dealership, it often results in inventory shortages. This results in the inability to meet customer demands for repairs or vehicle sales and loss of revenue.

Also, supply chain disruptions can disrupt the normal flow of dealership operations. This may require dealerships to allocate more resources to manage and mitigate the impact of these disruptions, diverting attention from other critical aspects of the business.

4. Ordering Delays

When dealerships do not have a streamlined inventory record they are unaware of the parts that need to be restocked. Due to this unawareness, they fail to order the parts on time which results in delayed delivery.

Ordering delays can result in extended wait times for customers who have placed orders for specific vehicles or parts. This can lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction, potentially causing them to seek products or services from competitors instead.

5. Demand Fluctuations

Customer demand for vehicles and parts can fluctuate significantly depending on a variety of factors, such as the economy, gas prices, and new model releases. This can make it difficult for dealerships to predict how much inventory they need to maintain. And by the time you do get those vehicles and parts in stock, many customers will have moved on to purchase them from your competitors.

How Autosoft DMS Solves Your Challenges with Its Parts Management Solution?

For all your above challenges, you only need one single solution, Autosoft Go.

With Autosoft Go, you can streamline your parts department operations and track parts inventory in real time. The platform offers robust features designed specifically for parts inventory management.

Here’s how:

1. Tracking Parts Inventory in Real-time

Autosoft Go gives your dealership’s steering wheel right into your hands. The platform offers insights into tracking your parts inventory by giving you the exact number of parts available in your dealership at the moment.

Your parts department can see the stock levels every day and order parts in advance so that your dealership is never understocked. This also allows you to check the parts that are most in demand and how quickly they are being sold.

With all of this information, you can take proactive steps to ensure stock availability and continue to provide excellent service.

2. Efficient and Secure Parts Management

The platform is built with robust security measures that allow you to manage your parts inventory from anywhere. You can even use your mobile device to log in and manage parts databases. This feature gives you the flexibility to keep your dealership’s operations running without having to be physically present at the dealership.

3. Parts Visibility & Sales

Autosoft offers a parts visibility feature that is specifically designed to give you insights into the changing demands of parts and always keep you aware of the most in-demand parts. This feature can be utilized strategically to place orders for parts that are most frequently bought.

• Under this feature, you can check the name of the part, the status, the supplier, and which employee updated the item last.
• You can now save the time and effort of your employees and foster a faster checkout process for customers using Autosoft. Customers can view the parts they need and place orders online.
• Our platform also offers automated order processing that automatically validates an order, verifies inventory, and fulfills it promptly.

4. Parts Bin Locations

No more trying to remember where each part is located in your inventory. Autosoft Go allows dealers to assign bin locations to parts, making it easier to find and pick parts quickly and efficiently. This saves your employees time and effort and makes the checkout process quicker, enhancing customer satisfaction.

5. Real-time Data Availability

Your parts department should have all the data at hand whenever they need to access it. With Autosoft Go’s real-time data availability, you can get instant updates on inventory, pricing, order status, etc.

This real-time data availability helps your parts department to fulfill customer requests, process orders and give information if that’s all they need.

No more “Let me get back to you on that” or “Please leave your number and we will contact you with an update”. Provide data quickly and swiftly with Autosoft Go.

How Autosoft DMS Benefits Dealerships?

If you are thinking you can probably do without software like ours, then here are some benefits that dealerships and automotive businesses have experienced using Autosoft DMS:

1. Improved Parts Availability

Dealerships have reported that they can now manage and track their inventory better which helps them provide parts to customers faster. They are rarely out of stock for an item on demand and they can easily check when their stock levels are lowering so they can place an order with the supplier in time.

2. Real-Time Inventory Tracking

Dealerships no longer need to buy themselves time when they are asked about a part or an item’s availability. Our platform automatically updates the stock levels for each part and whichever part you need to get information about, you can get it in real time and pass on the information to the customer.

Whether it’s about the pricing, the quantity, or the availability of bulk orders, you get all the information at your fingertips (quite literally too).

3. Supplier Integration

You can now create better relationships with your suppliers and make the ordering process seamless with Autosoft’s supplier integration feature. Dealerships can upload all the information about which supplier they work with and for which parts. Then, on the platform, the parts correspond with the name of the supplier.

This allows you and your team to be aware of the supplier at all times and place an order whenever needed.

4. Forecasting and Demand Analysis

Our platform not only gives real-time data but all provides insights on the demand of parts for a given period. You can check historical demand and current demand to forecast the future demand for a particular part. Using this information, you can keep the most in-demand parts in stock.

This information will also assist you in educating your employees about the need and usability of certain parts and how to upsell them to customers whenever possible.

5. Faster Order Processing

No more manual order processing and waiting around at the cash counter. As customers can now place orders online, orders are processed quickly and more efficiently. Also, you can use our platform to manage rush hour orders and provide a seamless customer experience.

6. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

When you can offer each customer what they want, provide quicker resolutions, process orders faster, and always have every part in stock, you enhance customer satisfaction. They will have a pleasant experience and they will keep coming back to your dealership for future needs. This will also facilitate word-of-the-mouth marketing for your dealership.

7. Compliance and Reporting

The automotive industry is subject to various regulations and standards. Effective parts management is essential for compliance, ensuring that vehicles meet safety, emissions, and performance standards. Your dealership will comply with the regulations and generate proper, timely reports of inventory and parts management.

8. Increased Profitability

When you use Autosoft Go, you are streamlining every bit of work related to parts management. With the right amounts of inventory, improved customer service and enhanced operation, you are getting the maximum profit from your business with minimal wastage and downtime.

9. Security and Data Protection

Autosoft DMS is built with advanced security features that protect all your dealership’s data at all times. It is built with 4 FTC-compliant levels of security, enhanced data encryption measures, access controls, and MFA. It is one of the most secured platforms today as described by UpGuard who positioned us as #1 in security risk management maturity.

Benefits of Implementing Parts Management Solution

In this digital age, you have to adapt to the technological changes to stay ahead of your competitors. Parts management solution is one such technology that dealerships cannot do without. The most attractive benefits of implementing a parts management solution are:

1. Data and Analytics Utilization

Make data-driven decisions with Autosoft DMS’ data and analytics feature. Our comprehensive data analysis gives you actionable insights into your dealership’s current performance. This includes information such as aging alerts for your vehicles, pricing alerts, and marketing alerts.

It also provides real-time data and insights into the demands for parts. This helps you fine-tune [arts management and only keep necessary parts in your stock.

With this information, you can get better control over your inventory, reducing the chances of being overstocked or understocked. So, no more spending your dealership’s revenue on parts that are not needed.

2. Streamlined Operations and Cost Savings

Parts management software like Autosoft DMS helps dealerships improve their inventory management by tracking inventory levels in real-time, forecasting demand, and generating reports to make better inventory decisions.

• This can help dealerships avoid overstocking and understocking, which will ultimately save them money.
• It also helps improve the accuracy of parts orders. This is because the software can be used to validate order information and to ensure that the correct parts are ordered.
• This can help to reduce the number of errors in parts orders, which can save the dealership time and money.

Additionally, dealerships can use the demand forecasting feature to keep stock of parts that are and will be in demand in the future. This ensures that only the right parts are available at the right time in the dealership.

3. Scalability and Future Growth

With actionable insights into your dealership’s performance and parts management, you can make decisions on how to plan for the future and expand your business.

This is because, when you provide customers with the right parts at the right time and in premium quality, the traffic to your dealership increases. This increase is used to expand the operation of the dealership and scale growth.

Autosoft DMS software provides a variety of reports and analytics that can help dealerships track their performance and identify areas for improvement. This information can be used to develop plans for future growth and expansion.

In the ever-evolving automotive industry, where e-vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, and wireless smartphone connectivity are creating a buzz, it is imperative that dealerships keep parts stocked for such demands.

For this, Autosoft DMS offers features such as real-time inventory tracking, demand forecasting, and inventory optimization.

Conclusion

Keeping track of parts inventory, understanding the demand for specific parts, and identifying trends is not a piece of cake. It requires tons of historical data integrated with current market demand and pricing. This is something that cannot be done manually.

For this very reason, a parts management system was created so dealerships can enhance customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and cost control and ensure regulatory compliance while being competitive in the automotive industry.

Autosoft DMS recognizes these needs and brings you Autosoft Go which will revolutionize how your dealership operates, tracks and stocks parts. The platform’s real-time data availability, inventory tracking, secure parts management system, and bin location features will be the game changer you need.

So, look no further, visit Autosoft DMS and book a demo today to start your journey to automotive success.