Rochester Chevrolet - Parts Barcoding

We’re a large wholesale dealer for General Motors with over $1 million in parts inventory. Every morning we have to get four to six trucks on the road to make deliveries. Before Parts Barcoding, we had three guys in the shop at 6:00 a.m. waiting for freight to come in so they could unload the truck, separate the parts, and process the orders.

After unloading everything, we had to write down which parts were for customers and which were for our stock; there was no way to tell who the part was for just by looking at it. For every part, we’d have to find the order number, go to the GM packing slip and find the customer’s name, match it up to the invoice and mark it off, cross it off the packing slip, write the customer’s name and RO number on a post-it note, and then tape it to the part. There were no checks and balances and every part was being handled multiple times. The entire process was a nightmare.

It’s not a nice environment when you’re checking in freight, temperatures are as low as 25 degrees below zero outside, and your employees are working hours upon hours to get everything completed.

I was at the point where I needed to hire more people to make it faster, but I knew there had to be a better solution. Parts Barcoding was that solution.

The receipting process before Parts Barcoding used to take four to six hours. Now, it only takes an hour. Everything that comes off our trucks in the morning gets touched one time. We know right away if it’s a stock order or customer order. If it’s a customer order, the scan gun prints out a label with the customer’s name and invoice number on it. It’s sorted and ready to go in a matter of minutes. We do anywhere from 300 to 500 lines on the GM order alone every morning. It’s eliminated the number of people who have to handle the freight and has saved us 70% more time
when processing orders. What used to take three people can now easily be done by one.

It’s helped us get parts to the technicians quicker, our parts inventory is more accurate, it’s easy to train our new hires on, and we’re 100% more efficient. Before Parts Barcoding, our trucks were never out of here before 10:30 a.m. Now, 99% of the time they’re gone before 9:30 a.m.

Parts Barcoding is a no-brainer. I can’t believe we waited as long as we did to get it. It definitely offsets the cost of staffing and the time it takes us to get everything unloaded, sorted, and shipped out to our customers. I really can’t put a dollar amount on the value it’s added to the dealership. It’s unbelievable. I truly can’t imagine my parts department running without it anymore.