Cycle Counts
Von Bank estimates 60% of the industry is toying with this direction this year. Who’s resisting? “Just folks who are inundated with day-to-day activities,” she says. “It’s not that they’re saying no–it’s more like they haven’t had time to implement.”
Count Paris among the converts. “If nothing else, when the salesmen sell something they are more confident that what comes up in the computer is right. I’ve worked at places where it’s nowhere close. We’ll still have an occasional problem out in the yard, but cycle counts every month mean it’s not such a disaster at the end of the year,” he says.
Either way, the rewards for partnering with manufacturers to develop tighter tracking methods are worth a lumberyard’s efforts. According to Kellick-Grubbs, vendor-managed inventory programs are creeping back into the picture after a disastrous start in the mid-’90s with buying groups and co-ops. This time, the vendors are placing product in yards, excusing the LBM dealers from paying until they sell the goods. To date, it’s not a formal program at any given manufacturer, according to Kellick-Grubbs, but rather a private handshake deal among good partners.
“The vendor has to have a lot of confidence in that owner’s inventory practices,” she says.
“In some cases the vendor will send folks in to do inventory with the dealer during the learning curve.”
–Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer in Indianapolis.