What is parts procurement software?

“So what exactly do you all do at Gearflow anyway?”

We get asked that question a lot. Simply put, Gearflow Parts Hub Pro is parts procurement software. 

And what is parts procurement software, exactly?

A parts procurement tool is not a marketplace or online store to buy parts.  Rather, parts procurement software solves solve one of construction’s most painful challenges: the parts procurement process.

Why should I care about my parts procurement process?

If you’re a fleet manager, you might think, “I have an entire heavy equipment fleet plus personnel to manage — why would I care about how we’re buying parts?”

That’s a valid question. Working with fleets and contractors across construction, aviation, manufacturing and other industries, our team has seen that the goals of most fleets have remained unchanged for the past several years:

• Decrease downtime
• Win margin
• Secure more jobs

Fleet managers like Dan Maitland at Ajax Paving Industries of Florida have told us that fleets want to be more predictable with their costs in order to stay within their budget. Staying on budget means that a fleet’s estimators are hitting their margins and can secure more jobs.

But fleet managers have also told us that meeting these goals can feel impossible when faced with reviewing and reconciling their maintenance and repair costs month after month — random spikes in costs seem unavoidable and no one can answer the question: “Why did we spend that much on that machine?”

We believe that the hidden Achilles heel of fleet management is the parts procurement process. We call the current parts process for most fleets “a death by a thousand cuts.”

Think about this:

• Parts teams spend 3-5 hours a day on manual, repetitive tasks*
• Picking up the phone to order a part isn’t an instant fix — there is a whole info-gathering, quoting and fulfillment process that ensues and eats up precious time
• The average parts order fulfillment time from when you need it until it's at the machine is around 5-7 days, based on our customer research
• Equipment managers lack insight into what’s eating away at margin — you can’t fight what you can’t see

The current status quo of finding the part you need to keep your machines running is mired with time-consuming issues like:

• Miscommunication
• Back orders
• Wrong pricing
• Sourcing alternative options
• No part cost visibility
• Endless phone calls
• Manual data entry
• Missing tracking information
• Matching invoices
• Equipment downtime
• Dozens of vendor portals
• Hunting down part numbers
• Wrong part ordered
• Mis-approvals

This is the death by a thousand cuts. This is the hidden problem eating away at your margin.

“If the parts department is 10% of your operating budget, you might not give it 100% of your attention. But, that 10% has the ability to down the machines and ultimately impact your goal of making your fleet more reliable. That’s why I was attracted to finding a new solution because parts procurement is the final frontier for fleet management to solve.” - Dan Maitland, CEM, Fleet manager, Ajax Paving Industries of Florida

Our research has found that the cost of a down machine can be up to $10,000-$15,000 a day. And we estimate that reducing the timeline of each unplanned repair by just 6 hours would prevent $1.8M in downtime costs per 100 assets over the course of a year.

So why should you care about your parts procurement process? Answer: because it’s a mission critical problem that fleets can no longer afford to ignore.

The solution: modern parts procurement

All those problems with the parts process we just covered can summed up as:

1. Limited access to vendors
2. Chaotic communication
3. Lack of visibility into the parts procurement process

It’s our personal opinion here at Gearflow that your go-to vendors mean more than just a purchase. Buying from “your guy” at a local Cat or John Deere is a totally different type of interaction and relationship than, say, an Amazon purchase. Parts teams or technicians often need to have a conversation with their vendors to secure the right part — and this kind of relationship and expertise just isn’t available on a straight marketplace or anonymous online store.

That’s why parts procurement software takes the best of your current process and strips away the steps that are wasting time and money.

One place for all of a fleet’s vendors

“But we already use an online portal for ordering parts."

That’s a common reaction we get from fleets — and I bet your team actually uses a couple dozen online portals in order to hunt down the parts you need. A single, organized place to work with all your vendors plus a way to find alternative options when needed quickly empowers a parts team to take back control of their day.

We’ve heard parts managers say that a modern parts procurement platform has literally changed their life at work.

“I can concentrate more on quoting my vendors and the accuracy of the parts coming in… It’s very simple software. I wish I had it earlier in my career.” - Dave Reed, Parts Inventory Control Specialist, Ajax Paving Industries of Florida

Before Dave used a parts procurement tool, the team calculated that emails and phone calls took about four hours out of Dave’s day. But now, Dave is a wizard at the parts desk, confidently managing and optimizing Ajax's parts inventory and vendor communications — which significantly impacts equipment uptime.

Automated parts requests with better communication

Here’s another thing we often hear parts teams say: “If I need a part, I just pick up the phone and call my dealer.”

But how do you know you need that part? Chances are you’re resaearching parts manuals and having back and forth with technicians to get to the point of knowing what part is needed. And what if that dealer doesn’t have the part? Or it’s backordered? Or the dealer has follow-up questions for the mechanic?

Suddenly that simple phone call has become hours and hours of confusing conversation — and that’s only one of the many parts requests that can go wrong.

Enter an automated parts request process that allows your team to submit their parts requests in 1 click — and keeps the resulting lines of communication clear between the shop, field mechanics, and vendors.

Here’s how an automated request process works:

1. Create Requests Instantly: Parts procurement tech enables teams to submit parts requests from your desk or smartphone. Technicians are empowered to send all necessary details to your dealer in minutes, eliminating tons of phone calls or requests with missing information. When questions do pop up, use instant messaging attached to digital parts requests to eliminate all those email threads and calls. Then, send requests directly to dealers or to a parts desk for approval, based on how your organization works.

2. Receive and Compare Quotes: Parts procurement software stores your fleet info so vendors are able to quote you faster, because commonly needed info like make, model, vin number, etc. are already included in the request. You can also send the same exact request to multiple vendors at once and receive the quotes in one place — and then choose the delivery date or price that makes the most sense so your team is never waiting on parts.

3. Fast and Easy PO Approvals: Eliminate endless back-and-forth for internal sign-offs and build workflows for quicker approvals. Plus, your team will have access to the requests and see purchasing decisions in real time.

4. Get Parts Faster: You’ll receive notifications when parts are ready and won’t have to worry about constantly calling your dealers for order statuses. Whether you get your orders by pick up or delivery, orders can be marked as received or flagged for issues immediately.

This process benefits everyone involved in parts procurement. 

It allows parts teams and purchasers to triage and approve requests that might be missing information, keeping all requests in one place (and no more searching for requests from mechanics via text or tediously copying over information from your work order systems).

Mechanics can easily describe the parts they need and add photos to a request without getting bogged down in looking up part numbers, allowing them to focus on the crucial work of getting machines back up and running.

And, finally, because the whole process is tracked, and parts requests are tied to work order numbers from either your WO system or accounting system, fleet managers are able to keep track of their parts costs and keep books clean. Plus, you’ll add meaningful insight and data to your P&L reporting every month.

Insights into time savings, parts costs, and performance improvement opportunities

Finally, one of the biggest benefits of using parts procurement technology vs. the old ways is the data and reporting that’s produced by your team’s activity on the tool.

Here’s an example of how this kind of insight could be applied in a fleet manager’s day-to-day

We’ve seen the impact of implementing better tools working with Ajax Paving, for example. Within a year of swapping their old process for Parts Hub Pro, they saw:

• Time to get parts quotes back from their vendors went from 2 days to 24 minutes
• Time spent waiting on parts to get to the machine dropped from 1 week to 1 day, from request to fulfilled
• Almost $215K saved in parts spend alone

And all of this reporting and more is available at their fingertips whenever they need it.

To sum it all up

Parts procurement software solves the three main categories of problems impacting downtime via the parts department.

One last common question: “But will my vendors use this?”

That’s a fair question and I’ll answer with a question for the equipment managers and fleet leadership teams out there: Why wouldn’t your vendor use the tool that your team implements to drive the success of your fleet?

The amazing fleets, shops and organizations that use Gearflow Parts Hub Pro have had great success with vendor adoption simply by driving this simple point home to their vendors: “We are your customer and we are asking you to help us better track our parts process.”

The better news is we’ve also seen vendors and dealers reap benefits themselves like:

• A better communication experience with their fleet’s parts team
• More complete and accurate parts requests, making them easier to quote
• Easier prioritization of urgent requests
• A less confusing process and time saved
• Better customer service overall

You can check out this vendor success story for more info about Parts Hub Pro is a win-win for fleets and their vendors.

We know that change is not easy. No single app or tool can instantly solve the massive productivity problem facing fleets and construction as an industry.

But here at Gearflow, we’re partnering with fleets and leaders who understand that the parts procurement problem is solvable. If you’re interested in learning more about Gearflow and how we can work with your existing tech stack, reach out to us.

*According to Foundamental, an investor in construction