Build a Better Parts Room

Whether a fleet runs its own parts room or contracts the operation to a third party, the fundamentals are the same.

The operation must keep the right inventory, hold vendors accountable, control obsolescence and keep technicians turning wrenches instead of hunting for parts.

The City of Fort Worth, Texas, Fleet Services Division showcases how these principles work in practice.

This fleet outsourced its auto parts operation to NAPA IBS about 11 years ago, but Assistant Director Brad Hunter clarifies that the fleet division retains full control of the operation.

Hunter and his team have the autonomy to make purchasing decisions based on what works best for the fleet. As one example, the parts division uses Fleetguard filters rather than the NAPA product line.

“We partnered with Fleetguard, got a 65% off list rate and we told NAPA this is what you’re going to buy,” says Hunter, who has overseen the fleet and the parts operation for six years. “We have that full autonomy to do the right thing for the industry, and it’s been a great relationship with NAPA. Our contract is not set up where it says you have to buy NAPA stuff. You have to do what the industry dictates.”

Hunter’s perspective extends beyond Fort Worth’s outsourced model. Before joining the city, he oversaw a fleet joint venture between Carrollton and Addison, Texas, where he operated a parts program without a third-party provider. That experience has shaped his approach to the parts room.

Both in-house and third-party operations, he says, must account for less-visible costs, set inventory levels deliberately, cultivate local supplier support and hold vendors accountable.

Look Beyond Price

The Fort Worth parts division supports 5,862 active fleet assets across police, fire, water, transportation and public works, parks, and other city departments. It completes 2,956 work orders on average and services 1,854 assets each month.

As part of that operation, Hunter oversees four stockrooms, along with three mobile stockrooms, with about $1.3 million worth of parts inventory. “That’s all completely outsourced with the City of Fort Worth,” he says.

Hunter says the benefits of outsourcing to NAPA IBS go beyond obvious costs.

“Day-to-day, you’re paying a vendor to come run your parts. But I look at the purchasing people I don’t have to have and the accounts payable people I don’t have to have,” Hunter says.

Even if a fleet operates its own parts rooms, staff time spent ordering, receiving, processing invoices and tracking down components all factor into the actual cost of keeping parts in inventory.

Hunter also applies that broader view to parts selection. In Carrollton and Addison, he conducted a filter study that considered performance as well as price. This research revealed that the best performing filter was not the least expensive one.

“I identified things that were maybe not the best in the cheapest filter, and vice versa. But sometimes you find out that the cheapest product is not always the best,” Hunter says. “So I go back to the word, ‘intangibles.’ It’s not a clear A-to-Z path. It’s a lot of work. The easy button is to buy the cheapest thing and move on.”

Treat Inventory as a Moving Target

Hunter describes min/max as a system in which reaching a minimum stock level automatically triggers an order that replenishes the part to its maximum level. Fort Worth performs a usage-rate analysis and holds NAPA accountable for maintaining those levels.

“We review the min/max every month because it’s a moving target,” he says.

Whether a fleet manages min/max levels internally or uses a third party, Fort Worth’s strategy underscores the need for a dynamic approach versus a static one.

A recent fire-truck repair showed the system working as intended. After a truck lost a serpentine belt, the division used the last belt at its minimum stock level. This triggered a replenishment order, and Hunter saw new belts on the shelf the next morning.

Inventory decisions also must account for availability and downtime risk, according to Hunter.

When there was a 13-month back order for roof-mounted air conditioners used on fire trucks, Hunter bought five extra units even though it made little sense based on purchase price alone. He made this decision after factoring in the operational cost of not having a critical part when it was needed.

Know Where Suppliers Fall Short

Fort Worth owns about $350,000 of inventory that NAPA does not carry and relies on its wider vendor network to supply those parts.

Hunter describes NAPA IBS as “a very niche automotive provider and small, medium-duty provider,” but shares that it offers less expertise in the high-level, heavy-duty and vocational arena, including fire trucks, dump trucks, backhoes and excavators.

“And we acknowledge that,” he says. “Not everybody can be a jack-of-all-trades.”

Fort Worth identified the gaps left by NAPA IBS and built relationships with suppliers supporting its primary Kenworth, Peterbilt, John Deere and Kubota product lines.

The division worked with a local heavy-duty equipment supplier with an existing NAPA partnership and negotiated the rate NAPA pays for those parts. The local vendor then supplies the parts to the fleet.

Local presence also matters. Hunter says some companies may appear to be local but offer little support. A local provider with established customer relationships is especially valuable when warranty issues arise. A fire truck, for example, may have a one-year vehicle warranty but 17 components covered by separate extended warranties.

Hold Vendors Accountable

Tires provide another example of Fort Worth’s autonomy and vendor oversight. NAPA administers the tire program, but the fleet receives government pricing.

“We do not pay more for tires through NAPA,” Hunter says. “Our contracts are written to where NAPA has to follow our government procurement guideline.”

The contract also ties tire availability to measurable expectations, with rewards and penalties based on fulfillment time.

“I require my uptime at my busiest center, looking at the tire stock, to be 25 minutes or less,” he says. “They have to fulfill a parts order within that timeline. If they meet that, I pay them a reward. I’m averaging a reward of $11,000 a year for them performing, and I’m happy to pay it.”

Fleets that manage their own parts rooms can apply the same principle by setting service expectations for suppliers and measuring whether they meet them.

Hunter also recommends asking vendors whether they can stock products on the fleet’s shelves and charge them when the products are used. Fort Worth is exploring that model for products NAPA does not carry.

Put Obsolescence on the Calendar

Fort Worth performs an obsolescence review each quarter and budgets 1% of its city-owned inventory each year for parts that may become obsolete. During the review, the fleet team decides whether to retain each inventory item.

The formal process keeps obsolete inventory from accumulating, but Hunter cautions that slow-moving does not always mean unnecessary.

“There are parts we have to keep even if we have them for three years, because of the one-off urgency of what the specialty of the part is,” he says. For example, some of the division’s Spartan fire trucks use a discontinued NeWay suspension.

“We had to buy some out of Canada. That’s $30,000 sitting on my shelf,” he says. “I’ll never get rid of those as long as I have the truck. The key is to get rid of those when I get rid of the truck, so two years ago we took a $350,000 obsolescence write off because I cleaned house.”

Keep Technicians At Work

The parts division also took steps to keep technicians repairing equipment, not searching for or waiting for supplies.

A recent study showed that when technicians went to the parts counter for gloves, the interruption cost 12 to 14 minutes per job. Fort Worth took this to heart and made gloves and other frequently used supplies available through vending machines.

“I’m really big on the intangible costs,” Hunter says. “You’ll see a box of towels, wheel weights, WD-40, batteries, plastic razor blades, gloves; all those little things that were slowing my technicians down and giving them reasons they couldn’t get the job done quickly. By having those items readily available, I’ve gained, on average, about 12 minutes of productivity for every third job.”

He adds, “So, they can’t say ‘I was waiting for gloves’ and then they play on their phone or talk to the parts guy. They walk right in, punch their code in, and they’re in and out.”

A fleet does not need an outsourced parts room to apply that lesson. Tracking why technicians leave their bays, and how long those interruptions last, can reveal inexpensive changes that return productive time to the shop.

In the end, Hunter concludes that the true measure of success for parts operations is how effectively they support fleet uptime, not how many parts they keep in stock.