Bodyshops and Collision Repair businesses have a unique challenge when dealing with their inventory.
While most stores simply stock what they sell and let the customer choose what they like best right from the shelves, bodyshops need to keep a ton of different consumable materials on hand to support dozens of common repairs on dozens of different models of cars, all at once. This creates a lot of headaches for bodyshop’s as rather than buying select inventory items in bulk, they need to have many more types of individual items of a far fewer number.
Having fewer consumables with a larger variety is certainly the right call for bodyshops though, as it allows for greater speed and efficiency when fixing whatever damage is brought into the garage through less ordering, shipping, and wasted time.
This necessary thinner spread of consumables in a bodyshops inventory however makes for a perfect storm.
As having less of each item means it needs to be reordered more often, and having a larger variety means reordering is far more complex.
This increased number of more challenging orders is just the most direct pain from a bodyshop inventory, as storing, labeling, sorting, and worst of all charging for each individual consumable item on each specific job quickly turns into a nightmare.
The best way to tame this beast of a challenge faced by collision repair and bodyshops is to ensure your inventory management tools are up to the task.
Prioritize using tools designed specifically for bodyshops, as their experience in managing thin but wide inventories is built into the software itself! Additionally, look for more ‘open’ tools that allow for any technician to recognize when a consumable is low, and put in a request for reorder right away.
What tools and techniques does your bodyshop use to manage or tame these inventory issues? Please share your experience with the rest of us in the comments below.
