KT Telematics, leading fleet management solutions provider, has launched an Inventory Tracker app to help fleets monitor the consumption of spares and optimize inventory costs. The timing of the app launch augurs well with the current situation in the CV industry with all stakeholders including fleet operators grappling to handle the crisis due to the COVID pandemic.
Commenting on the app launch, Thiagarajan, Founder, KT Telematics, says: “In the current situation, fleets cannot make money; they need to cut expenses, reduce inventory and streamline purchases. Having a streamlined visibility of their cash and inventory matters a lot. Our Inventory Tracker app would help fleets reduce part costs, raise purchase orders, streamline stock count and purchase process flow, also enable direct interaction with vendors.”
It is a common practice for large fleet owners, with 50+ vehicles, to buy spares such as tubes & flaps, nuts & bolts, oils, bushes, greases, etc. in large quantities. So, instead of buying 5 kg grease, they go for a 100 kg barrel which turns out much cheaper and also fetches them credit options from the vendor.
But not everything is beneficial in such an approach, as Thiagarajan explains: “Due to large availability of spares, the efficiency of spares usage is usually low and largely goes untracked. There tends to be a lot of wastage which leads to additional expenses. Also, there might be more stock than actually needed which might go unused for a long time. All the unused stock lying idle at a large fleet operator’s storeroom could account for lakhs of capital lying which is significant for any business.”
At times, fleet operators end up having to stock thousands of different parts of varying value, as a result of which managing the inventory could become a nightmare. This is where having a proper inventory management system makes a big difference. In addition, an optimized inventory would also help improve the fleet’s vehicle utilization. If the planning and purchase of spares are done more efficiently, the waiting time of vehicles due to the unavailability of spares can be reduced and even eliminated. Fleet operators can plan on a monthly or quarterly basis and buy spares accordingly to ensure they neither fall short of what is needed and end up losing valuable uptime nor buy in excess and lock up capital in stock.
KT Telematics already offers a Service Tracker app that is used by service personnel while consuming the spares. The new Inventory Tracker app has been linked to the Service Tracker app to offer a more complete solution wherein the entire life cycle of all the spares is monitored from purchase to scrape sales.
Apart from having spares at different service locations, fleets also tend to carry spares in the vehicles for quick fixes. Touching upon this aspect, Thiagarajan shares: “In a fleet, every truck is kind of a location in itself. Every truck has some spares like tubes & flaps, nuts & bolts, greases, etc. for usage during the trip. So, a fleet of 100 vehicles means there are 100 vehicle locations carrying spares apart from the stationary service locations. Our app monitors the spares consumption in the vehicles as well which would help fleets track how much spares are consumed by each vehicle and optimize the same.”
The KT Telematics team has worked overtime during the lockdown to launch the Inventory Tracker app ahead of schedule so as to support fleets in the tough times. With the app available on the Android Play Store and iOS App Store, the company is currently creating awareness about the same among fleets.