The Parts Pickup Bottleneck
Like many dealerships, Pat Lobb Toyota relied on a traditional parts pickup process. Technicians submitted parts requests, then walked to the back parts counter to retrieve them. With dozens of technicians working simultaneously, this created congestion, increased wait times, and reduced productivity.
Technicians were making five to 15 trips per day to the parts counter, often waiting two to 15 minutes each time, depending on counter traffic. This resulted in significant downtime, pulling technicians away from their bays and from billable work.
Dealership leaders implemented small process changes, such as removing chairs from the parts department to discourage lingering and adding a pickup rack outside the parts department. While those steps provided temporary relief, they did not eliminate the core issue of wasted time for both technicians and the parts team.
“What initially felt like “minutes lost” at the parts counter turned out to be multiple hours per day of lost technician production once the time was measured.”
A Better Delivery Workflow
Pat Lobb Toyota introduced Relo to deliver parts directly from the parts department to technician bays.
Relo integrates seamlessly into the dealership’s existing Reynolds workflows, allowing technicians to request parts with a simple click and keep working.
The parts department experienced minimal disruptions to its existing process. They receive a request, pull the part, and now, instead of setting the part in a designated rack for techs to grab, they just load Relo and send it to deliver. That’s the only difference. Without technicians coming to the back counter, the parts team can spend more time working on quotes, answering calls from advisors, and pulling parts.
Technicians continue to request parts from their computers as they always have, but now they can keep working and receive parts at their stall without leaving their bay. Many times, technicians will request their parts and then step out to retrieve the vehicle. By the time they return, Relo has already delivered their parts, and they’re ready to get started.
The Relo installation required minimal involvement from the dealership team. The Reynolds team mapped the shop, worked with leadership on safe delivery points, and had the system up and running quickly. Adoption followed, with most technicians becoming comfortable with the system and supportive of it within the first week.
4-6 Hours
of recovered technician time per day across the shop.