Managers: Mitch Leone and Allan Fite
Titles: Parts manager and assistant parts manager, respectively
Company: Dallas Mack Sales, Dallas, TX
Operation: Heavy-haul truck dealership outside Dallas
Problem:
When Dallas Mack Sales acquired its nearby Dallas Volvo Truck Center, a simple yet complicated storage problem reared its head: how to house an additional 10,000 parts—combined Mack and Volvo parts inventory worth about $1.5 million—in a space already maxed out with 10,000 Mack parts.
“We essentially needed to double our parts inventory capacity without adding floor space,” notes Mitch Leone, Dallas Mack’s parts manager.
Yet Leon’s choices were not only limited, they could get expensive in a hurry: raising the roof of the facility, building an addition, buying an altogether new building, or squeezing everything into the current space.
Allan Fite, assistant parts manager, adds that cutting back on parts availability in order to fit everything into the existing space wasn’t an option.
“We are always in close contact with our customers, so it is business-critical to consistently have parts on hand to meet their needs in a timely manner,” he explains. “By having needed parts on hand, we are then well-positioned to fulfill the exacting demands and diverse projects not only for our domestic customers but for the international market as well.”
Solution:
In addition to its storage needs, Dallas Mack also wanted a smarter yet more compact parts storage setup that would help cut inventory retrieval time in half, Fite points out.
“If we expanded our dealership footage, additional [parts] retrieval time would be spent just getting to and finding the stored item,” he explains. “With the proper storage, everything is consolidated. There is less walking around and stored parts are always within easy reach and full view. This means fast, effortless retrieval.”
Dallas Mack found the answers to all of its concerns with provider Stanley Storage & Workspace Systems. The storage solution company constructed a series of compact parts cabinets that would hold more parts and create additional floor space for the combined dealership as well. That included installing several sizes of drawers spread over 258 cabinets ranging in size from 27- to 59-in. tall, notes Fite.
To ease the transition to the new storage system, Dallas Mack only converted a small section of the parts department each day by removing the parts and taking down the old shelving one section at a time. It then installed preconfigured cabinets and reorganized the parts according to part number so each section was ready to go in the new configuration the next day.
Fite points out that the new cabinet system also solved an organizational problem for Dallas Mack. Previously, parts had been stored all over the place, depending on the size of the part and what space was available at the time. Now, each manufacturer and part type is stored together, in one easy-to-find section, he says.
“For example, all of the gaskets are in one place and the high-dollar electronics are securely locked,” Leone adds, noting that Dallas Mack would have spent 10 times as much if they’d gone ahead and raised the roof on the old building or purchased a new facility instead of reorganizing the parts department.
Fite also says that two cabinets now store the entire contents of five units of standard shelving previously used by Dallas Mack.
“That means we could double our storage capacity while freeing up space for more productive and profitable uses,” he emphasizes. “With multiple accessories, customizable drawer sizes and heights, these cabinets can be easily reconfigured based on the different sizes of inventory as well—with the customer benefiting from that efficiency too.”
