Stocking parts

[lefty]

I just used up the last of a 6' length of 1/4" I.D. / 1/2" O.D. fuel line I had. I've used it on snowblowers and some lawnmowers. It's a little thicker than the line I've been replacing in some cases but worked in a pinch. I wanted to start keeping some fuel line in stock. I work on about a machine a week on average and was wondering if there was a "most common" line size or even the 2 or 3 most common sizes. I'd like to get a larger quantity this time to keep on hand.

I'd like to start working on more and was also wondering what people would advise for a hobbyist / start-up in terms of what few parts you would recommend buying in bulk to always keeping around... or even hardware.

Thanks very much.

[KE4AVB]

For me my inventory on hand is more about the lead times on the commonly used items from my vendors. At one time I stocked a larger amount of parts as to get volume discounts. Now with several distributors in the mix it is a lot easier for me to only keep one or two of an item. Of course I still buy fuel line in bulk of either 25' or 50' rolls. Here I stock the 1/4 and 3/16 nitrile rubber fuel lines; hardly ever need a 5/16 line. Now on the Tygon I usually only use two sizes and a couple Echo line sizes. Just something I got use to as most customers are looking for a quick turn around if just a fuel line problem. One thing to help out on the bottom line is buy your hardware in bulk of the item you commonly use. Say a box of 25 hex screws especially the metric ones. Here a single hex screw is nearly as much as half of a box.

Have items in stock is nice but having items that you rarely use can really hurt your available cash to purchases plus keeping track in a pain unless you have software and use a binning system to help keep track of the inventory. BTW I am getting ready for annual inventory check as few items got superseded and the software didn't carry Bin location forward. What a pain when you got 20K in parts to have item that you know that you darn well have but can't find it because of a lost bin location. Keeping a track of 1600 different items can overwhelm you without a good tracking system.

With the distributors I now have it is one or two days deliveries so I am not as pressed to keep parts on hand. Way better those that are 1 to 2 weeks out on deliveries. Even with this improvement I still have over 26K in inventory; although, it is down from 35K. Still a heck of a lot to have on hand to do 20K in annual business but turn around times is important to me as I need to keep things cleared out as much as I can. Just don't like long term projects like the one I just finished that took over 2 months to complete but of course I was out of commission for nearly a month and still losing afternoons due to dizziness.

Here is a copy my inventory totals here. Now course the sales looks like I didn't much more in value than last year but my costs are down considerable plus I was able sell at a greater profit while still lowering my customer's costs.

[lefty]

Great info. Thank you.

I keep a hand full of fuel filters, shut off valves and such. Plus I hang onto all the old parts, carburetors and stuff like that. Having some bowls and floats laying around has come in handy. I never seem to have the right spark plug for the job I'm working on but I have a pretty good-sized small engine repair dealer within 2 miles. They usually have 90% of the parts I need but there's nothing better than having what you need right in the shop. What about spark plugs? I see a fair amount of J19LM.

I know carb kits cover a wide range of carbs. Are there any kit numbers you keep on hand that cover the most common carbs? Both on the diaphragm and bowl styles? I'm not so interested in getting a price break for volume as much as I am interested in the convenience of having what I need in the shop. I have two young kids so even though I have a local dealer, I can't always get out of the house. Plus I do a lot of my work on weekends and their weekend hours are pretty limited.

I do pretty much homeowner stuff exclusively right now. Nothing commercial. Still learning.

Thank you.

[KE4AVB]

Still learning

If you are a good tech you will never stop learning until your death. I have been working on all my life and even at 60+ I still learn new things. And believe it or not sometimes from new techs that had ran into a problem that I haven't. Just the one about an engine running funny and stopping because of a shear flywheel key. Most of the ones that have found wasn't anything this tech's symptoms was. It ran more like a failing ignition coil.

ON carburetor kits they as a wide as you think. About the only kit that actually a wide are the Walbro WA and WT kits. I now only stock a kit for the each of the Walbro carburetor on the Kohler Command and Courage as I have been having to replace the needle seats on these the last few years. The rest of kits are just base what I see a lot of in my shop. Every region is different as what are common failures.

As I said before now that have about distributors signed up for with a couple days delivery times I not planning on stocking as many parts. I really got out on a limb last year (2018) with TEW shutting down and one aftermarket belt suppliers sending a lot wrong length belts. End ended up throwing out over a $1000 in belts and TEW had throw back over a 1-1/2 months delay in repairs plus I had already quoted the jobs so I was stuck at selling at cost for a few months.

[bgsengine]

A decent rule of thumb to go by: Keep record of every part number you have to buy (or might have needed) and if you can sell at least 1 every 3 months (It takes years to build a good history to draw from) it may be worth stocking one. (or more depending on your sales rate) But generally you don't want to stock any more than you can sell (and replenish) in a 3 month period (Inventory Turns is an important profit figure) Ideally you'd turn over (Sell at profit) your entire inventory value every 3 months (Though in this seasonal business it's a very very hard goal to achieve) If you have had a part in stock for longer than 18 months, consider liquidating it (and if it still doesn't sell,after a couple years, toss it and write it off on taxes as inventory shrinkage)
*edit to add* - Look at your inventory as Cash dollars sitting on the shelf that you can't spend (sort of like putting your money into a bank CD) until you can sell it.

[lefty]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the guidance.