Effectively manage bulk inventory and reduce shop costs
By Paul Treml, Sales Manager at Graco’s Lubrication Equipment Division
Fluid management is critical to keeping costs low in vehicle service applications, as it tracks the dispense of oils, coolant, anti-freeze and other fluids. Effective fluid management in fleet vehicle, automotive, heavy truck and heavy equipment service can reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies, while generating helpful data about dispense history. Complete engineered systems effectively deliver these benefits, as components are designed to work together to deliver the most accurate data possible.
Why choose fluid management?
Effective fluid management systems allow fleet vehicle service shops to control expenses by effectively managing their inventory of fluids such as oils, gear lube, coolant and anti-freeze. One benefit offered by fluid management systems is that metering can ensure the dispense of precise volumes, avoiding costly mistakes. With this added control, facilities are able to capture additional savings by purchasing fluids in bulk. With an increasing number of vehicles on the road today requiring expensive synthetic oils rather than conventional ones, precise dispense and inventory management is key to keeping costs down.
With the large volume of fluid being stored and dispensed, inventory accuracy and shop efficiencies are critical for expense management. Effective fluid management systems provide parts managers with the information necessary to order enough fluid at the right time. With inventory available, technicians have less downtime and are able to service more vehicles. In the same way, fluid management systems can track volumes of used or wasted fluids, ensuring that disposal is timely to avoid the hassle of full waste containers.
Another critical reason for implementing a high-quality fluid management system is the ability to recall transaction data. The detailed dispense history provided can help shop managers in visualizing production and discovering patterns or workflow roadblocks in order to improve efficiency. Additionally, having fluid dispense history can provide an audit trail showing the date, time, type of fluid and how much fluid was dispensed for a particular vehicle, confirming that the correct oil was used or the proper volume replaced.
In short, fluid management systems deliver a range of benefits to fleet vehicle service shops, including increased inventory control, greater dispense precision, improved operational efficiency and detailed dispense history.
Cost savings and improved efficiency
Well-designed systems can answer the “five Ws” for every dispense job: who performed the dispense, what specific fluid was dispensed, where in the facility this dispense took place, when it occurred, why (i.e., which work order and customer record the dispense was tied to) and even how much fluid was dispensed.
The complete picture offered by top-quality fluid management systems gives insight into how to improve shop efficiencies, and with this kind of comprehensive data you can make smart business decisions about inventory and processes. In combination, the data, system efficiency and precision dispensing make fluid management critical to managing costs and ensuring success in fleet and municipality vehicle service applications.
Visit Graco in booth 6317W at NADA 2019 for an interactive demonstration of the latest innovations in fluid management.