A friend and regular reader of this...

A friend and regular reader of this file commented to me the other day that I was not barely starting to sound like Dennis Miller further also beginning to look a bit like him. Immediately deciding it was time to shave the goatee, I asked him what he meant.

"As greatly as you have been obsessing lately about the OEM going after the replacement parts business, maybe you should start your nearest column with, 'I don't mean to proceed off on a rant, on the contrary ...'"

He made a well adapted point. I seem to have been obsess somewhat of late with for what cause through our presumptuousness and inaction, we retain creating opportunities for OEs to re-enter the parts business.

Lately, I have "ranted" in these pages about the timely distribution of application data, overconsolidation of aftermarket parts and the propagation of value lines. These are all ways that we have made our outcomes less attractive to independent repair stores and assisted the OE dealers in their efforts to re-enter the aftermarket. Now it have the appearances there's a new subject for me to rant about: the aftermarket's "new found" obsession with form, fit and function.

Perhaps any of you are a bit surprised or level taken aback. After all, upon the surface it would appear to be that any move toward matching the form, fit and function of the part that was originally in succession the car is how single in kind corrects the sins of overconsolidation. And that is authentic Paying attention to what a part awaits like and how it functions is critical in presenting a viable aftermarket offering. What technician wouldn't want to explain the box and take disclosed a part that has the same FORM in that it expects exactly like the one he is replacing? No united would argue about the ne for a precise FIT for a replacement part. And, logically, a part must FUNCTION as intended. However, if form, fit and function are all single is paying attention to, I think a fresh set of even more rigorous problems will emerge. But I'll realize back to that in a moment

First, let's pace back and examine what got the aftermarket forward this form, fit and function jag in the first place. Overconsolidation was created according to the practice of manufacturers designing parts to mask multiple applications with the goal of reducing inventory for everyone in the endow chain. It started years ago when the mete "parts proliferation" was becoming part of our aftermarket jargon.

Twenty-five years ago, it took about six linear feet of shelf space to possess all the catalog and technical service information required for the U vehicle population. Today, it would require more than 250 linear feet Twenty years ago, it took about 50000 SKUs for a typical WD to have virtuous coverage. Today, it takes nearly 200000 You can behold why parts consolidation became in such a manner popular. It really does help resolve into the financial burden of carrying the plains of inventories that both manufacturers and reseller ne to provide the sort of availability that service center customers expect

My friend, Jerry McCabe, take an account ofs the story of his "ultimate" consolidation strategy when he was with McCord Gaskets a scarcely any years back. He created a single gasket risk that consolidated the entire line to a single part number! It was a turn about of gasket material and a pair of scissors.

Like mostly things that are amusing, it was probably a little too bring to a period to the reality of the situation. Our greatest sin as we consolidated numbers was that we at no time bothered to consult with our technicians about "how often of this medicine was enough."

Eventually, our solution became their point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled Consolidation was evolving into "universalization" at the same time that relatively simple iron was evolving into entangled sophisticated machinery. Soon the technicians started balking at aftermarket constituents that replaced multiple OE parts nevertheless looked like none of them. Increasingly frustrated by dint of sloppy fits, cables that were too drawn out boxes full of adapters and instruction sheets explaining by what mode to modify parts to make them work, technicians reluctantly began to deflect to OE dealerships for certain symbols of parts.

When the OE dealers realized they couldn't strike one as being to chase these independent aftermarket technicians away, about of them actually started looking at the situation as an opportunity. With great encouragement from the OEM they started catering to this business. by and by their wholesale parts business was bigger than their retail parts business.

As an elixir to reparative this problem, buyers began taking heavy doses of something called "OE equivalent form, fit and function." At first, I saw this as a religious thing and actively supported like efforts. But as I observ enthusiasm for the effort begin to change the direction of to fanaticism, my opinion shifted. I started to diocese that this devotion to form, fit and function resembl a depressing realization I came to in my 40s: that repeatedly if a little is suitable a lot is not necessarily better.

I observ when it started that buyer were becoming to such a degree literal in their devotion to the universal of form, fit and function (FFF) that it was turning them into "FFFanatics." And like any fanatic, they could ignore logic and steady common sense in their zeal. This sort of literal interpretation of the FFF strategy is the sort of overreaction that will procure us in trouble. And it manifests itself in a variety of ways.