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Why are parts so hard to get?
By Jim Intravia 04-Feb-02



I can't speak for every industry. I have spent more than 1/2 of my life in the copier business, and I am kind of used to it. I find it interesting when I quote a customer $85 for a lamp. I feel some guilt at the fact that the lamp costs me a very small percentage of that. I also recognize that if the customer buys a quartz halogen room heater for about $35 it will include two or three lamps very similar to my $85 lamp. That does cause some discomfort. I once had a customer tell me that the list price of a lamp was $40, and how could I charge $85? (The person who gave him the list price could not obtain the item.) I stated that the lamp was in stock and was costing me money by being in stock. The price was non-negotiable. If he wanted to get the lamp elsewhere, I would charge him only labor to install it. When he repeated the list price argument, I found that for once in my life I was able to come up with an appropriate response; one that I am very proud of to this day (Usually it occurs to me a week later. You know. "I shoulda said…...") I made the following offer. "If you buy a machine from me, at list price, I will promise to sell you all parts and supplies at list price for that machine for the rest of the life of the machine. It was quite an animated conversation. He paid my price for the lamp. Think about my offer to him. It would have been a good deal for me. The copier industry discounts equipment so heavily that service departments have to set a completely different set of rules. I know some will object to my reasoning. They will imply that I am dishonest or something to that effect. Not true. In many cases, our customers do not buy the machines from us. They call us only when they absolutely must, and expect instant gratification. In order to provide that instant gratification, we must be extremely well prepared. We must stock some parts, and have quick access to others. Access to parts means establishing lines of credit, researching suppliers, researching cross reference information and a fair amount of creativity. As a service professional, we don’t necessarily change parts. We diagnose and repair machines, with or without parts. Sometimes we stock parts and find we don’t need them. All of these expenses have to be absorbed. The business, like any business, either spreads the cost out over all customers, or eats the cost. If you eat too many costs, you go out of business.

So, servicing equipment is not that easy. Like you didn’t know that!

Parts sourcing
After-market is practically non-existent
For parts that is. There are, of course, suppliers for consumable items and supplies. Unique parts such as gears, solenoids, electrodes, etc. are only produced by the manufacturer. Even if a machine is marketed by a huge company (such as Xerox®,) if they did not manufacture it, they don’t manufacture parts. For example, if Lanier marketed a machine manufactured by Toshiba, the replacement parts that Lanier technicians received came from the Toshiba factory sources. As mentioned last month, there is not enough demand for individual parts for there to be an after-market source. No independent manufacturer can tool up to make a $5 gear that they are lucky to sell 500 of in 5 years. Ultimately, nearly all such parts come from one factory, in one country on the other side of the planet.

That factory does not necessarily exist for the purpose of making money, strange as that sounds. It is a subsidiary/department of or subcontractor to the manufacturer of the equipment. The manufacturer makes the lion's share of their income from the distributor, branch or dealer who buys their complete equipment and supports it for some years after. If they were to allow or encourage their parts to be sold through 3rd parties, they might hurt that profit base. By not offering these parts on the open market, retail customers are more closely tied to the company they purchased the machine from.

Differences that are not different
Manufacturers will frequently use the same part in several machines. However, they do not necessarily reuse the part number when they do so. The service technician frequently has to search hard to find and purchase something that was already in stock, or at least, had already been researched. There are some items that various manufacturers use that are identical to those used by other manufacturers. Fuser bearings are one example. I suspect that other bearings, bushings, and possibly toner motors are in this category. However, again, there is no sharing of part numbers and, generally, no cross reference information available.

Furthermore, unlike other industries (such as automotive and computer) the dealer who sells new equipment also makes a large amount of their income from service and supply. This might seem ridiculously obvious to anyone in the office machine business, but compare it to the automobile business. The car dealer draws nearly all of their revenue from new car sales, with used cars being a large factor as well. Supplies (gas, oil, etc.) are not a part of their business plan. Service is, but is not a major factor. Many auto dealers do no service of their own, but subcontract it and provide it only because they feel they must.

More automotive differences
Retail parts stores do not sell cars. They do not sell gasoline. They do not lease vehicles. Gas stations do not sell cars. Transmission shops do not sell cars. Transmission shops do not sell parts. But a copier dealer sells copiers, toner, and service (with parts as part of service billing.) People in the office machine business expect to or at least attempt to, acquire all business related to their primary focus. The selling dealer hopes to sell service. The servicing dealer hopes that customers who came to him for service will buy their next machine from him. Everyone tries to sell toner and cartridges; that is the easiest part of the business, with almost no expertise whatsoever required. Somewhere buried in all these situations is parts. Machines can't run without them. Technicians have to be able to get them. The entire industry is set up in such a way that parts are the most difficult item to purchase.

Conclusion
There is no way around it. You need parts. They are often hard to get. Work hard at it. Cultivate your sources and research methods. Live with it. Deal with it.
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