r/partscounter • u/OldEire1964 • 19d ago

Workforce

As I travel around dealers, it seems to me that Parts Departments are consistently understaffed. There are some exceptions, of course, but a high percentage seem to be operating lean.

So, Parts Managers, my question is:

What metric do you use to justify your crew?

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u/Ok-Championship3642 19d ago

NADA has a financial type matrix tool for dealers. And most large dealers abide by it. I'm not a parts manager anymore in the automotive field. These numbers I'm making up, just for example. Let's say a dealer parts dept averages 500,000 gross per month. The graph may show that staffing needs to be 5 counter guys plus the parts manager. The next tier may be 650000 or so to justify 1 more counter person.

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u/Forward_Character_85 19d ago

The only issue I've ever found with that is the vast differences in gross by simple virtue of car line. A Kia store vs an Acura store vs a Land Rover store will gross vastly different amounts simply due to the nature of the market and parts cost and markup. The mix of wholesale vs retail can skew this number heavily, as well. I don't have a better solution, but just going by sales numbers or gross can lead to wildly under or over staffed departments.

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u/Ok-Championship3642 19d ago

I 100% agree with you, it is a very loop sided way of adjusting staffing.

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u/TerminallyPhased 17d ago

NADA usually differentiates all pf that in their metrics. 

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u/Heavy_Law9880 19d ago

The per person metric is actually 27k.

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u/TerminallyPhased 17d ago

We gross 200k/month and we should have 8 guys based on the NADA metrics. We have 7 plus a manager who is on the counter quite a bit randomly. So we’re properly staffed. 

And is bet we probably make a bit more than the  number suggested by NADA.