Dealership employee question

TractorChick · Aug 21, 2008

I've worked at 3 different equipment dealership over the last 30 years, and I still can't figure out the best way to manage operator manuals, keys, and accessories.

I'd love some feedback from anybody who has a system that works at their dealership.

In a perfect world, during pre-delivery and/or set-up, the piece (whether it's a walk behind mower or a 100+ horsepower tractor) would have its books and keys and accessories kept neatly together and marked with the stock number and stored somewhere safely so that when it's sold, all of it can be given to the customer. How come this is so hard to accomplish?

crashz · Aug 21, 2008

Thats funny, I just bought a new chainsaw and the salesman had me dig through a box of owners manuals to find the correct one. I feel good for buying at a local dealer and not a box store, but I probably could have gotten better sales service at the box stores. The only reason I went to that particular store was that the parts department is really great.

Why not have a filing cabinet with labeled files for every piece of inventory?

civesnedfield · Aug 21, 2008

TractorChick said:
I've worked at 3 different equipment dealership over the last 30 years, and I still can't figure out the best way to manage operator manuals, keys, and accessories.

I'd love some feedback from anybody who has a system that works at their dealership.

In a perfect world, during pre-delivery and/or set-up, the piece (whether it's a walk behind mower or a 100+ horsepower tractor) would have its books and keys and accessories kept neatly together and marked with the stock number and stored somewhere safely so that when it's sold, all of it can be given to the customer. How come this is so hard to accomplish?

Here's my suggestion for what it's worth----

When the tractor is delivered to the dealer, take the keys, manual, and all other things and put them in an 8 1/2 manila envelope. Seal it and put the stock number on the outside of the envelope.
Store in a standard file cabinet.
When the unit is sold all you have to do is hand over the envelope to the customer and he has all the things that go with his or her new toy, excuse me piece of equipment.

This seems like a simple thing to me.

What scared me a few weeks ago was this. I purchased a new bush hog. After assembly the dealer takes the front half of the PTO shaft off of the unit and stores it. It took almost an hour to find the shaft for my bush hog. They don't tag or mark them in any way. Just put them all into a big pile.

Sackett2 · Aug 21, 2008

That amazes me too. I feel that when a new piece of equipment come in, that should be checked and filed away. If it's something as big as a tractor with several pieces and manuals, then order them right away if they didn't arrive with it. Put it in a big envelope with the stock number on it. Too easy, and yet not done.

CHDinCT · Aug 21, 2008

Well, I think the keys would be needed for pre delivery testing, and how often do the mechanics that set up a machine need to look at the manual? Probably not often, unless it's a piece of equipment with low sales volume. Just some practical issues to consider that add risk to all the keys/manuals getting back into the envelope.

JDeerekid · Aug 21, 2008

civesnedfield said:
What scared me a few weeks ago was this. I purchased a new bush hog. After assembly the dealer takes the front half of the PTO shaft off of the unit and stores it. It took almost an hour to find the shaft for my bush hog. They don't tag or mark them in any way. Just put them all into a big pile.

I new of a local dealer that recieve a load of rotary cutters and finish mowers and did not remove the pto shafts and they all came up missing.

He even says he cant even keep pins or the clips for 3pt hitch(which cost around 15 cents a peice) on the tractors without them being stolen.

For the origional posters question. I would have a filing cabinet set up and like everyone else said put all paperwork, manuals and things in a folder and label with model numbers and such.

Midsouth · Aug 21, 2008

i like the big manila enevlope idea. As far as keys go the ones that come with the machine go in the enevlope most mechanics have keys for the machine. On most brands on key will fit several differant models

Ridgewalker · Aug 21, 2008

If you want I could sell you a RFID locator system. You tag the envelope/shaft with a RFID tag and put it away. Then you tag the tractor with a corresponding tag. When it's time to match the two up you use a handheld to determine the tractor tag number and then off you go to find the rest of the gear. The tag will respond when interrogated by the handheld letting the user know where its at. You could also store information such as a serial number or you could tie it to a database allowing you to know what you are looking for.

Of course if you're going to spend the money on RFID you will also want to install a good pick/put system. You can get all that done for $10-25K.

KAB · Aug 22, 2008

Most (not all) car and HD truck dealers use the folder system for owners manuals and the 2nd set of keys. For the primary keys they hang them on a board based on the last 2 digits of the stock number.

For accessories (items to larges to fit in the folder) if you have a designated area for them, you could tag the item with the stock number, place it in the designated area based on the last digit(s) of the stock number. (We used to do this with special order items when I worked in retail parts).

Kurt