DealersEdge Professional Forums

Since I have been working at our dealership the tool room has always been located in the parts room, but the tech's came and got the tools as they needed. Now we are running out of tool room and are discussing where to put them or what to do. My owner is under the impression that tools are the managed by the parts department in almost all other dealers. I already pay for half of one of the oil change guys salaries and I feel it is not my responsibility to keep track of all services tools when I would probably have to hire another person just for that. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Special Tools.......oh what a wild ride this is gonna be...

Until the Tool Audit was annouced last year, the tools lived in the shop. Well, all that changed. The tools now live in 12 of my parts bins. That's Right.....12 of my bins that once held parts, $$$, are now under the control of stuff that sits, and will probably NEVER be used. Some of these tools are a joke! We figure we have close to $40k invested. I have to pay my warehouse clerks to check-in, bin locate, clean, and check-out these tools. I don't think it should be my respondsiblilty, and this is the 1st dealership I have worked for that didn't have a seperate tool area, IN THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT.

WE TOO HAVE 12 OTHERWISE HEALTHY PARTS BINS
FILLED WITH SHOP TOOLS. ONE OF MY COUNTER PEOPLE HAS HAD TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME,ORGANIZING AND LABELING BINS(THE AUDITOR WAS REAL IMPRESSED,QUICKEST AND CLEANEST AUDIT HE HAD DONE)BUT IT SURE DOESN'T HELP MY BOTTOM LINE OTHERTHAN THE TECH'S AREN'T LOOKING FOR TOOLS AND CAN CONTINUE WORKING,BUT I SURE DON'T THINK IF NEARLY OFFSET THE COST OR SPACE AND TIME.
I HAVE TRIED TO THINK OF WAYS TO RID THEM FROM THE PARTS ROOM,SO FAR NOTHING.
ARE YOU TAKING CARE OF THE WARRANTY PARTS???

We have some tools in parts. It doesn't
take a lot of time but the techs don't have
to waste time looking when they could be
selling us parts.
As for warranty parts, I feel when you are
calculating sales per parts advisor you should triple the warranty sales to cover the
extra time to hold, ship and scrap.

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Our tools also until the tool audit resided in the shop. We then had a inventory, invested in a conex 8x40, installed shelves and bins and gave the control to the assistant service manager/warranty administrator. Yes they do take a lot of room but once inventoried and listed on the access database it is a lot better. Now when needed tools can be found and located quickly. As new tools arrive, I add them to the database. When a tech needs a tool, he locates it, signs it out and then returns it to a return box when I then check it in and return it to the storage boxes. It seems to work nicly and with both GM and Chrysler there are a lot of tools, both needed and otherwise.

Do most of you have a shop foreman?
Why shouldnt they keep control of tools?
Give the shop foreman the responsibility
and the authorization to enter the parts dept
to retrieve the tools needed.The less the
number of people responsible for the tools
the less people the techs have to ask to
find a tool.

As a Fixed Ops guy I see both sides of the equation, and I understand the concern with lost bin space and time. But I have one question...With the exception of the few of us that have phenominal retail over the counter sales, where would you be without the guys in the shop? Isn't it in your best interest to keep them happy and selling parts? A lot of us take this captive market for granted and it shows in our service and attitude. Few people in the dealership put up with the physical and mental stress that techs and service advisors do. Anything you can do to help them will show up in your sales figures.

i evicted the shop tools from the parts department about a year ago, in the interest of floor space. The technicians are more concerned with tracking the tools now that they have no one to blame in parts when things are missing. All the tools were placed into two cabinets at the end of our shop. This seems to be working very well and have not had problems with tools growing legs.

Yes..we do also keep track of the warranty parts. And as far as gman110's comments I feel my department baby's our tech's more than is really needed anyway without also keeping track of THEIR tools. No one cares to keep the parts room happy and we are the ones that provid the parts, so they rely on us just as much as we do them.

Wow, it is apparent that wall building between parts and service is alive and well. Beleive me I have added my share of brick and mortar to these walls over the years. However, after being placed over both departments I realized just how counterproductive it really is. Your time is much better spent building teams instead of walls. Now when you quit laughing about that, I'll tell you that it can be done. It will require both a strong parts manager and a strong service manager who both have a "big picture" vision and are more concerned about the overall heath of the business and not just their own departments. As with almost anything it comes down to attitudes and egos and I have had my share of techs that I wanted to just hit between the eyes with a hammer as soon as they stepped up to the counter. The challenge as a parts professional is not to take it personnally and retaliate in kind. This begins the wall building process from which there is no return. I came to the dealer environment from the aftermarket parts sector, and dealt with some customers that make my current tech look like angels. However, I was willing to do many things for these customers that I currently wouldn't do here and all for less gross. Why? competition... Okay I'll shut up and address the forum question. Should we keep special tools? It really depends on available floor space and personnel capacity. If you have got the space and time, it will go a long way toward improving departmental relations. Should you be responsible for cleaning dirty tools? Absolutely not!! I also make no gaurantee that these tools will get out of the return box and back on the shelf in a timely manner if we are busy. Broken or dirty tools get routed to the service manager for handling. Should we keep warranty parts? Yes, we do get to keep all the profit, so we should handle the parts. Warranty administration is, and should be a shared responsibility.

Ladyhawke, I am interested in the ways you guys baby your techs. I need some good ideas.