Posted by James d on May 26, 2004, 5:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Parts supply"
Hi All
It is interesting to note the quality of parts dipping, as pressure on price abounds.
One thing that never fails to amaze me, and an earlier contributor mentioned it, is how a cost concious parts factor can afford to run a fleet of vans around the countyside dropping on the hour every hour! And usually to get the poorly planned workshop out of the smelly stuff. I understand that the odd surprise part requirement crops up from time to time, but in my experience workshops have come to expect immediate delivery on everything, including planned service items.
I'm not qualified to have a definitive answer on the cost of this, but it must be quite considerable.
Slightly different than the cut-price Chinese part imports I know, but there must be some margin to be saved by better asset utilisation by the factor, through better planning by the workshops. Maybe a possibility of a sharing the new found margin as a planning bonus?
However, the factors are under pressure from the me-too syndrome (as the Blues Sisters deliver every hour, so should we), and some garages are price tarts - cheapest wins.