Reliably having a well- stocked supply of parts, tires, oil and lubes on hand is an essential part of performing in-house maintenance.
• Know the amount of inventory for all items you have at a given time. If you have a large fleet and a lot of inventory, you might need one person who is responsible for it. Smaller fleets can desig- nate a shop person responsible for ordering parts and supplies, processing all purchase orders, receiving deliveries, and making sure that every- thing coming in matches what was ordered.
Although the supply chain impact of COVID-19 are lessening, the most recent order backlog on new school buses equipment has created a potential need for school buses operating at districts/companies to extend replacement cycles. As a result, maintenance and in- ventory cost has been impacted by the decision to hang on and wait for things to improve. In addition to those challenges, we can only assume
what the impact that the many zero-emission mandates on the horizon will have on the fleet replacement pro- gram that districts/companies have in place, especially those based on cost models using diesel- or pro- pane-powered school bus prices and not supported by cost offset grant funds. All this may result in school bus operators making decisions to further extend the life of school bus equipment, making inventory and parts management a higher priority than ever before. The key issue relative to improving school bus parts
inventory management is that district/company man- agement directs the effort to manage cost by setting achievable goals via planning, organizing and formulat- ing realistic budgets to meet fleet requirements. ●
Robert Pudlewski is STN’s technical editor and a member of the National School Transportation Association Hall of Fame in recognition of his 40-plus year career as a school bus maintenance, technology and procurement expert.
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Air Conditioning for School Buses (Type A, C & D)
MFSAB & Activity Buses
Specify Trans/Air A/C systems installed in your buses on your next purchase.
•
A/C system installations available on buses ordered without A/C in your fleet.
• •
Purchase A/C parts on-line for easy ordering
busacparts.com
Parts and components available for some hard-to-get competitors – call for details.
(800) 673-2446
www.transairmfg.com |
www.busacparts.com
TransAir_1123_HV.indd 1 11/13/23 2:42 PM
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