With Deere closing all the local dealers down around here it is more important than ever to try and maintain a good supply of the most commonly needed parts on hand. I often replace a whole series of belts at a time. Especially if I replace one clear on the inside on the combine. Every one that has to come off first to get to that one also gets replaced. I'll often then keep those used belts as a spare that could be ran in a bind.

I try and keep a list of what I have on hand and another list of parts I am low or out of. I try and do all the parts buying during annual parts sales especially on big ticket items, and on filters and other annual wear parts. If I need a couple of something I usually buy a half dozen so I have extras on hand. 35 mile 1 way trips to the dealer take a lot more time than the 4 mile one way used to take.

I don't have a complete "every item I need" inventory but it's pretty well organized "at least to me" and I know right away whether I have it or not.

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That is pretty much what we do. We try to keep a few parts that we know have a propensity to fail on hand. I think we keep two combine belts - straw chopper and header sicle drive. Probably should keep feederhouse drive belt but in 35 years cant remember being broke down because of one. Smoked one or two and ran with a bad spot in them for a day or two till had time to replace. In-field belt replacement with the aforementioned exceptions - well I can't remember the last time we replaced a belt during season. But then we spend a lot of time in the winter going over them and replacing suspect parts although I can't say that belts are that high of replacement item. We tend to keep good cylinder bars and concaves - keeping the rest of the machine in good shape can make a difference in belt replacement. Then I probably don't push a combine as hard as some also - just my demeanor I guess. We have kept a seal kit for the variable speed feederhouse on the 9610 because of its probability of failure although just upgraded the piston to 50 series and they are not supposed to fail like the older smaller ones on the 9600-10 series. We tend to have a larger parts supply for the 9 year old 9610 than we do for the 3 year old 9760 although it is starting to get enough hours we will start to keep more for it. Maybe we are just lucky but we have very little down time during harvest because of machine breakdowns - it is a rare exception and not the norm.

One thing that is going to differ about stocking on farm parts is the farms overall philosophy on machine replacement. If a person keeps pretty new machinery and trades often with a dealer 5 minutes away that will open for emergencies after hours and keeps a good parts stock is going to have a different attitude about keeping parts on the farm than someone who runs older stuff and keeps them till they die and lives 300 miles from a dealer that stays open 8-5 5 days and keeps no parts. Also makes a difference if you are running one machine or 10 of the same model and series. If you have 10 in the field at the same tiem the likelihood of needing that belt or part in that season goes up about 900% compared with the guy with one combine. Also makes a difference if you are running one combine over 5000 or 500 acres a season. Also makes a difference if you tend to trade to different brands often - not good having $10,000 of parts for a green machine then going to a red or yellow, or sometimes even going from a walker to rotary of the same brand.

Like everything else, one size doesn't fit all. What does help is that we learn what other farmers are doing, evaluate if that practice fits our situation, then adopt the good ideas and marvel at why in the world everyone is not just like us :-)

What we do keep a lot more than other surrounding farms is we have a hose machine with hose, quite a lot of fittings, a large assortment of bolts and other hardware, most kinds of sealant,etc for a minor repair job, etc. I find it a terrible waste of time to send someone to town because we lack a common bolt size or some sealant or other $1 item that keeps us from finishing a repair - either in season or in the winter. We also keep hand and power tools to pretty much do anything that we are capable of doing and have a reasonably equipped shop although we don't go as far as lathes and such.

John 

My thoughts exactly Pokey!!!!! This guy is making it hard for us mere mortals to live up to!

Just kidding Von. Really nice organized parts shelves.

My daughter has been working on ours trying to get some sort of organization. Makes it a lot tougher when there are multiple people in the shop with various degrees of knowlege and propensity to neatness....er should I say sloppiness. And two or three of us buying parts for "stock". I can remember at least half of what I have bought but really have trouble trying to remember what someone else has bought.

We have tried to do the inventory card thingy several times in the last 35 years always ending in failure. About the best we have come up with is to have a basket or area for a certain machine and all of its parts goes there. At least it narrows the search area. 

John

We have practiced that keeping the old belt trick also from as far back as my Dad's days in farming when I was a small kid. In fact I'm pretty sure there is a cylinder belt and probably some others hanging up in the shed somewhere for a first year model 3300 JD combine. We have failed to come up with a system to determine when to actually get rid of the stuff. Can't remember actually ever "using" one of the old belts but never know.....just in case......

I will have to say we did use a used belt on the cotton strippers so there is hope for the combines..... now keeping parts for mid 70's AC cotton strippers - that is a whole nuther story I'd rather not get into. Anybody wanna buy a couple of AC880 cotton strippers, boll buggy and module builder???? They are for sale.

 :-)

John 

Impressive photo line up!

I wonder who is in charge of inventorying the inventory, and how often is inventory taken of the inventory?  During those frantically busy times, what happens if 'someone' picks the last piece from inventory and doesn't get it on the "replace" list, how long before it is noticed that the empty space on the shelf needs to be filled with "part X"? 

Around here, its a case of needing a part right now and 'knowing' I had one, but not remembering I used the last one until I need another one, and the space on the shelf where I 'knew' it was is empty.  Perhaps I need to label the shelves and remind myself to look through them periodically on a somewhat scheduled basis for empty labeled areas -- and I don't keep an extremely diverse inventory.

Another question - should or do you insure your inventory in case of tornado, fire, or theft loss.  $2-10k worth of inventory would be a sizeable loss, and would most insurance companies treat this the same as shop equipment or drag their feet if specific riders aren't included on your policy for "inventoried parts"?  Just wondering.

Jim, I'm glad you brought the topic back to dealer support. I can't argue very much of what you said. I'm not involved in parts at our dealership, so am speaking out of "ignorance" maybe.

There are really only two reasons for a dealer to stock a part. One is to capture the profit from selling the part. Not having it means exactly what you said. The customer will shop around to find it. Second reason for stocking a part is to satisfy our customers which should result in future business.

So why not stock a part? Dollars and space. Every dollar tied up in a part that doesn't sell is a dollar that can't be used to stock something the customers are actually buying, or to upgrade a service truck or whatever. A dealer can have huge dollars in their inventory, but that doesn't mean a thing to you if they don't have the single part you need.

There are a lot of judgement calls on this. Eg, is the part a critical failure item? Belts and alternators come to mind here. Is the part something that would need hours or days to get at and replace, meaning you could have it on hand by the time it was needed? Internal transmission parts come to mind. What's the machine population in the trade area that would need that part? What's the sales history on that part? Does the manufacturer require us to stock that part as part of our dealer standards? Would stocking that slow moving part result in poor inventory turns, which means we don't meet our dealer standards?

The discussion on belts had me wondering if the belt was something the dealer normally stocked but ran out of. That will happen to the best of dealers, and is different than a situation where the dealer made a conscious decision not to stock the part.

Finally, this discussion on carrying parts is something only dealers have to think about. The aftermarket suppliers only think of the first reason for stocking. That is, they are hoping to capture the profit from selling the part. If they don't have it on hand, they don't make the money, but they also don't have to worry about upsetting their customers. I'm not suggesting they have it easier or whatever. I'm just saying they are dealing with different criteria than a dealer does.

In reference to your final statement. I personally don't expect loyalty from our customers. I believe we have to earn it. 

We only have a hand full of saws - not enough to do you any good. There are supply houses in Texas than sell those for a fraction of the cost they will cost you through traditional OEM parts system - if you need a phone number I'm sure we have some written down in our parts book for suppliers.

When you replace them get some screws also. The fine thread screws will sometimes strip out and there are coarse thread self tapping screws to replace them that will cut new threads in a slightly larger hole (from the stripped out fine threads) - you will probably need some of both as the head sometimes rounds on the fine ones even though the threads are still good....... it's like Roseann Roseanna Danna always said, "it's alllllways sumptinn".

John

I think you nailed it Omar. I can understand all of that. When i get irritated is when the part is not normally stocked that is a known problem and there are lots of the units in the area - no excuse in that situation.

In his belt situation, if the dealer had never sold any of the particular feederhouse setups, and his combine had come from an outside area I can understand the dealer not having or stocking it. If it is common to his area - somebody in the parts chain dropped the ball. 

John 

I'm having a little difficulty seeing where there is a big difference between replacing parts by policy (someone in the other thread said they put all new belts on the combine every season, John just said they replace lots of parts) vs keeping a set of belts on the shelf.   Seems like it would cost more to just replace stuff arbitrarily (and keep the old one) then to keep a new part on the shelf, at least to me. 

There is some difference between John going to a dealer 2 miles away and me going to the same dealer 30 miles away....when they're not open or don't have it in stock, or when his machine is working in my part of the world, that is negated. 

Having like machines is definately a big advantage in the parts department.  Our combines use mostly the same parts, and the last one we replaced did too.   I expect to run one more generation of machines like these, so I'm not too worried about carryover at this point.   We had quite a few belts left over in stock when we quit running 7720's.  You'd be surprised how that stock has disappeared....when you have parts often you can make something work even if you don't have the 'right' part.   Our belt usage was horrible when we cut fescue, lespedeza, and group 2 weedybeans.    By comparison corn is a lot easier on them, except for chopper and clean grain belts, those still seem to go from time to time. 

The lathe is kind of a double edged tool.....it allows you to do amazing things in an equipment down situation but it also encourages you to do stupid things when you don'thave to.   

In addition to my above thoughts. I couldn't get over the idea that not stocking parts was good for a dealership. As I've already stated, I'm not in parts, so I'm just guessing.

I think the most profitable parts for a dealer are the ones on hand. They take less time with the customer, don't have extra freight costs, etc. If a customer asks for the part, just about 100% of the time, the customer hands over money. If the part has to be ordered, I'd venture that the sale ratio drops considerably, but takes as much of the parts man's time.

One other thing. I'm not in service so I don't know this either! Forcing customers to maintain their own inventory of parts also means that we don't get the service work. I would think that a lot of times if the dealer has the part in stock during busy season, a farmer would be likely to hire the dealer to install it. The tech could often have the part at your farm by the time you've made a round trip. In the meantime, there are few farms where the only thing you have to do is to operate the machine that is broke down. If the dealer doesn't have the part, or you've been trained to stock the parts yourself, the dealer won't get the opportunity to sell some extra service.

You're definately correct on the loss of parts sales and service business.  If I could count on the machine going back to work in an hour or two after I call for service, that would be worth something.  If I have to pay someone to drive out and tear it apart and not have what it takes to fix it, then pay them to drive back again after the part arrives two days later, the utility of hiring the service call has pretty well been degraded.  If I can call and say "I need this" and send someone on the way, or better yet, have enough confidence to just start driving toward the part, that has some utility.  If I get there and then have to go back to the phone and start looking for another source, well, I'd have been better off starting out by calling around.  If I have to buy ahead of time to insure I have what I need, why would I not buy from the lowest cost supplier rather then the "servicing" dealer?

This seems to upset some here, but it seems to me that many dealers make their own bed so to speak, then get all fussy when they  land in it.   

Don,

Maybe you can take comfort from the fact that there appears to be some oil dry on the floor in front of his parts shelves.  Anybody that can't keep the shop floor spotlessly clean has to have a little going for him!  Maybe there's a cluttered workbench somewhere around there too! 

Von, 

Looks like a pretty well organized system.  I try, but I'll have to admit that I can't always find what I need (even when I think I have one).

Mike 

Different strokes.

We definitely have changed some management strategies since farming away from home more - three service body trucks instead of none for starters. 

I didn't figure I ever had time to learn using the lathe well enough to be very useful at it and figured the time I spent learning to use it enough to be useful would be better s[ent managing and making deals. Never had enough interest to provoke me to spend the time. I have plenty of other vices (literally as well as figuratively).

John 

Sounds like bollpuller knows what he is talking about.

John 

"Service" makes the customer money. If it doesn't, and causes him to seek other remedy's, it is not really service, it's just disguised as service. It may be a profit center for the dealer but it is not service.

John 

We probably stock a few more parts than I let on to plowboy. We kind of do the same as you as far as when buying planter bearings and wheels, getting one or a few extra. Didn't want to let him think we were too well stocked - he might slack up, depending on us to have it. After all, I know where he lives and the way around his shop and place pretty well. Why stock it when late night five finger shopping at his place will suffice? Hope he keeps the place picked up - hate to fall and hurt myself and be a lawsuit involved :-) :-)

John 

One man show here so I get all the credit and blame for having or not having something I need. I usually have a notepad on a clipboard close by so I can jot down anything I remove from inventory and have spare parts and pieces organized by machine and boxes. If it's not in the box for that machine I don't have it.

 I usually will go through all the inventory after fall field work is done and make up a complete list of what I need to get or replace for the following year. Usually do this so I can have a complete list for when the annual parts sales go on at the beginning of the year. I also spend quite a bit of time going through machinery in late summer after wheat harvest but before fall harvest preparing machines for storage and noting anything that need repaired or replaced. I don't have a decent shop big enough to work on machinery in the winter so I try and do a lot of it in the late summer.

Nobody else messes with my inventory or cataloging of parts so everything is right where I put it or left it last. That is one of the reasons I'm able to walk right to the box with machine appropriate parts and know if i have it or not because if I did not buy it I don't have to look any further.

Insurance requires a updated list of inventory and tools every so often. So far they will allow lumping "parts on hand" under 1 item. I try to set some sort of reasonable amount for parts inventory. Hopefully they would not get too picky if there was a loss involved.

-John, the problem with your parts stock is it's too darn far away.....I have to drive by the dealer to get to you. 

Now if you'd put parts up north.....