Inventory Control, Order Bank & Pipeline Management
Managing the Entire Journey: Order → Chassis Arrival → Upfit → Delivery
1. Start with a Clean, Accurate Order Bank
Effective inventory control, order bank, and pipeline management are crucial to smooth operations. Your order bank is your daily scoreboard. Without accurate entry, priority codes, body codes, and customer timelines, chaos follows. Therefore, maintain it daily rather than monthly. Track:
- Order dates
- Estimated build week
- Incentive eligibility
- Customer delivery expectations
- Required upfit details
When your order bank is bulletproof, your pipeline becomes predictable.
2. Master Pipeline Management from Factory to Delivery
Pipeline management means actively moving vehicles forward instead of waiting for status updates. As a result, you eliminate surprises and floor-plan creep.
Critical checkpoints include:
- Scheduling dates
- Build dates
- Ship dates
- Rail/truck movement
- Estimated delivery week
Proactively updating your customers keeps them confident and stops them from shopping elsewhere.
3. Accelerate Upfit Completion with Advanced Material Ordering
Upfit delays are among the most significant contributors to lost profit in the CFG industry. But you can dramatically shorten downtime by ordering upfit materials in advance based on the chassis ETA.
This means:
- Secure steel, aluminum, and accessories before the chassis hits the upfitter lot
- Establish forecasting templates with your upfitters
- Communicate to build volume 30–90 days in advance
- Set a target upfit time (ex: 14–21 days) and hold everyone accountable
When an upfitter has racks, cranes, service bodies, ladder packages, lighting, and shelving already on site, your units do not sit for weeks waiting for supply chain delays.
4. Use Pool Companies to Reduce Floor Plan Expense
Pool companies can be your best friend when used strategically. Instead of waiting for factory allocation, utilize pools to pick up:
- Box trucks
- Service bodies
- Pickup bodies
- Popular configurations for local commercial demand
Because pool units are already built or in progress, you can dramatically reduce:
- Time to delivery
- Days in floor plan
- Lost deals due to long factory lead times
- Order cancellations from impatient customers
5. Track Inventory from Order to Delivery Like a Financial Asset
Every day a vehicle sits in the pipeline without movement, someone is losing money. Effective dealers treat inventory like an investment portfolio.
Track:
- Days at the upfitter
- Days from ship to delivery
- Days to invoice
- Days the customer is waiting
This level of visibility helps you identify bottlenecks, eliminate hidden costs, and improve CSI and profit per unit.
6. Strengthen Relationships with Upfitters for Faster Turn Times
Strong upfitter partnerships will save you more money than any incentive program. Build relationships by:
- Forecasting build volume
- Communicating regularly
- Sharing ETA data
- Standardizing upfit packages
- Securing preferred turn times
- Paying on time
When you become your upfitter’s easiest and most predictable customer, your jobs get prioritized—every time.
The Real Value: Better Cash Flow, Faster Delivery, Higher CSI
Dealers who systematize inventory control, order bank, and pipeline management consistently outperform their competitors because they:
- Reduce floor-plan costs
- Accelerate cash conversion
- Improve customer retention
- Increase sales volume
- Boost Fixed Ops revenue through maintenance plan penetration
- Gain market share by being the fastest and most reliable commercial solution in their area
Build Your Custom Inventory Management Tool
A well-built spreadsheet will help you manage this process with precision and accuracy. When your inventory, order bank, pipeline movement, and upfit timelines are tracked in one structured system, you can finally forecast future profit with confidence. This level of clarity transforms guesswork into predictable, repeatable growth.
Contact me today to build a custom Inventory Management Tool that:
- Tracks inventory from order to delivery
- Monitors pipeline movement in real time
- Identifies upfitter delays before they cost you money
- Calculates floor-plan exposure
- Forecasts profit and future volume
- Streamlines communication between sales, management, and upfitters
If you want predictable cash flow, faster deliveries, and stronger profitability, let’s build the spreadsheet system that gives your Commercial, Fleet, and Government departments complete control.
