national sales manager Rich Straw. “We highly recommend that people call in. Tat’s how our business was built—by making the process as easy as possibleI know every company is different but we have three guys in sales with more than 60 years of combined expe- rience. if it was me trying to replace an exhaust system, I’d want to talk to someone who knows as much as they do and know what I would need to do the job.”
BETTER INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Latimer sees the industry moving toward online inventory manage- ment, too, especially as fleets have become more diverse over the years. “Tat’s certainly the trend among more savvy folks. Tey are tracking costs per mile, parts life and a lot of other critical data,” he said. “Tere’s a lot of market intelligence at your fingertips now.” McCool also touts DTNA’s ecommerce system where dealer in-
ventory systems allow customers to see which parts are in stock— and at what parts distribution center—so they can better anticipate when a much-needed part will arrive. “It’s going to be one of those things that requires a little train-
ing,” he said. “But a customer can stick in a VIN and look on another page (on a website) to see who has it and put it in stock.” Johnson encourages colleagues to adopt a web-based inventory management system. His system lets him know how long a part has been in service and when he’s running low on a particular part. “When I came in, there was no parts program at all. An auditor
or anyone else really had no idea what parts were where,” he said. “Now, with a couple clicks of a button, I can tell you where a part is and when it was put on that bus.” He encourages fleet directors and service managers to “get out
there and see the different parts programs.” “Tere are so many of them, you could spend weeks looking at
them,” Johnson said. “I love the system I use. I’m not knocking any other system, though. Tey can do so many things.” McCool sees the writing on the wall. “People who started in the
industry in the last 15 years never started with paper. Tey started with computers,” he said. “Ten or 15 years from now, this won’t even be in the conversation.” ●
QUAL IT Y MAT TERS
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