ONLINE
ORDERING AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT REMAINS
UNREALISTIC FOR MANY SCHOOL
DISTRICTS WITH LIMITED INFRASTRUCTURE RESOURCES, SAY VENDORS AND MANUFACTURERS
By Ryan Gray
In a maintenance survey conducted with STN readers in January, a familiar theme sur- faced: computers, electronics and technology taking over in the school bus garage. Te responding technicians were dis-
cussing the prevalence of computers in diagnosing today’s school buses with mul- tiplex wiring and advanced engines with fuel injection, turbo charging and emissions controls. But what about online ordering and inventory? While nearly eight out of 10 maintenance
professionals said their operations now rely on laptops when repairing buses, the chal- lenges of keeping up with technology are going beyond working on the vehicle itself. For more than a decade, online e-com-
merce Web sites have been available to ease parts ordering. It can be fast and easy to log on to any number of vendor Web sites to search for needed parts, compare prices and pull the trigger on a purchase. Many large fleets, especially commercial ones, for years have been well-versed at going online to satisfy their parts replenishment needs as well as track existing and future inventory. Yet, most small and medium-sized school
districts still appear unwilling — or more aptly unable — to take advantage of these types of online tools. Half of school bus maintenance specialists reported to STN that their operations never purchase parts online, and 35 percent said they only use the Internet for parts purchasing about a quarter of the time. “Out of the 5,000 accounts in our system,
there is probably only a handful of them that actually do online ordering,” said Shelle Johnson, the inside sales manager for after- market provider Bus Parts Warehouse. “It just doesn’t seem like mechanics have ac- cess to the Internet. Many school districts say, ‘I could buy these parts or buy a laptop for my mechanic. Which is more important?’” In today’s budget-troubled
environment, economics is certainly at play. Many school
districts barely
have enough money to keep basic programs up and running much less be able to increase invest- ments in what could be construed as non-essential equipment such as online
parts ordering terminals. But, there is evi- dence that many school districts continue to choose not to order parts online for rea- son of tradition or school district policy. Of the 181 respondents to a question on
how parts are bought, 63 percent said they only use purchase orders compared to just 7 percent who rely solely on credit card or- ders, though the latter did not determine if those purchases were made online or over the phone. Tree in 10 of those surveyed said their operations relied on a combina- tion of credit cards and POs. Online orders only account for about 1
percent of sales for Heavy Duty Bus Parts, despite the company offering e-commerce since January of 2006. But President Bran- don Billingsley gave the flip side of fewer online sales, as he said the Internet remains an invaluable sales conversion tool. Many of the customer accounts set up at the com- pany’s Web site actually do result in orders, just the more traditional way. “When people are searching certain
products or part numbers, it’s easier for them to get pricing online whereas they might not purchase online. Tey’re using the web site as a tool, but I think a lot of people are still more comfortable talking to someone on the phone,” he said. Te Internet also allows companies to go
into more detail on their products, such as showing how to change from using incandes- cent lights to LEDs in a stop arm via an online video or by showing wiring schematics. “It’s value-added to the customer,” Billing-
sley added. “Tey use the Internet as a tool for such to get this information that they normally couldn’t get from a static catalog.” School bus parts vendors have their own
inventory controls, though few currently have a service like an
Amazon.com that au- tomatically refreshes parts volume online. Instead, like at Bus Parts Warehouse and Heavy Duty Parts, bookkeeping or inven- tory software separate from the Web site is linked through the system to enable sales people to communicate that info directly to potential customers, oftentimes through e-mail. Te process can work different at the vehicle manufacturer level through their dealer networks. Like most of its competitors, Tomas
Built Buses has both an online portal for parts look up and a separate parts purchase site. Te proprietary parts online look-up
www.stnonline.com 37
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