Now more than ever, we live in an age of instant gratification. No one wants to wait for anything. You will probably often hear a customer say “I’ll be back for it later”, if you don’t have something in stock. You order the item and it is delivered, but how often does the customer not come back, because he has found what he is looking for in stock elsewhere?

So why the rush? In terms of mechanical repairs, our present economic circumstances mean the game has changed. For many motorists, preventative maintenance is just a far off aspiration and repairs are only done when things go wrong. It means you are often talking about a car that is either off the road or badly struggling, so the speed of the repair becomes important. A repair might have to be done and dusted by 3:30, so that the kids can be collected from school. It is a far cry from the days of booking in a vehicle a week in advance and pre-ordering the parts.

At the same time, the service from distributor to factor has improved beyond recognition.  You can now get two or maybe even three deliveries a day from many suppliers. Ok, so if you are out in the country, it might take until the next morning before you get those vital parts, but improvement in deliveries means you rarely have to wait more than 24 hours. Most factors have seen this logistical revolution as a godsend, allowing them to slash their stocks. After all, why hold a top fifty or a hundred parts in a range in stock when you can order it and have it within hours? Your customer doesn’t mind the wait? Or does he?

What your customer really wants is to be able to get all the parts he needs from one source, straightaway. If you can’t meet this requirement, then the chances are he will try elsewhere and eventually gravitate towards the outlet that has more parts in stock and available now.

Off course you can’t have everything in stock all the time and using the fast delivery service for that infrequently requested item makes perfect sense. But is destocking to the extent that some very commonly requested parts are now delivery items only, really progress?

It is all about balance. Pick your suppliers brains to get a stock profile on a certain range that works in their experience and do not just rely on you own sales stats to work out what to have in stock. Ask yourself, is the reason I don’t sell these popular brake pads because there is no demand for them, or is it because I never have them in stock?  

You also need to ask yourself a simple but vital question. Which will have the biggest impact on my business in the longer term, the cost of holding a little extra stock, or the cost of consistently lost sales?