Jump to content

Ford Stock Inventory Reframing Launch


ice-capades

Recommended Posts

SUMMARY
We are pleased to launch Inventory Reframing, which we first announced to the Dealers at the 2021 Grassroots Meeting in Dallas.

 

Inventory Reframing is a Region-specific approach to reducing stock order complexity and stocking inventory based on the highest selling configurations in each Region. By limiting our stock inventory to the highest selling and fastest turning configurations in each Region, we expect to achieve several significant benefits both in the near term and long term for our Dealers, Ford and for our customers.
 

BENEFITS TO DEALERS
• Faster Days to Turn
• Reduced Aged Inventory
• Lower Floorplan Expense / Improved Profitability
• More Predictable Forecasting / Easier Inventory Management

 

STOCK ORDER GUIDES
Regional Stock Order Guides are a new addendum to the traditional Order Guides that you are familiar with. Stock Order Guides are unique to each Region and were developed based on Regional sales
analysis and with input from Dealers that served on an Inventory Reframing Dealer Committee in each Region. 

  • With the launch of Inventory Reframing, we are maintaining broad sales coverage while limiting stock orders in each Region to the configurations listed in the Stock Order Guide
  • All configurations on all vehicles will remain available as an option for customers that want to place a retail order
  • The traditional Order Guides will still exist as a main source of content detail on each vehicle, and to serve as a resource for retail orders
  • Stock Order Guides will be posted the week of 1/10/22 to a new link in the WBDO Dashboard, following the close of the January wholesale

 

VEHICLES INCLUDED / LAUNCH TIMING
Effective with the late January / early February wholesale allocation, Stock Order configurations are being reduced on average between 70% - 80% from the total amount of configurations available on the vehicle lines listed below:


• Bronco Sport
• Escape
• Edge
• Explorer
• Expedition
• Ranger
• F-150
• Super Duty

  •  F-250 pick-ups ONLY (Chassis cabs, F-350’s and above will have no stock restrictions)

• Mustang
 

Vehicles not listed above are not currently included in Inventory Reframing and will not have any changes to the orderable configurations available for stock.
 

WBDO / ORDERING PROCESS
WBDO will have the same appearance and process flow for ordering vehicles. The key change will be based on your Region, you will only be able to select the available configurations for stock orders that are published in your Region’s Stock Order Guide.

 

On February 2/7/22, following the close of the late January/early February wholesale cycle, WBDO will update to only display the available configurations in your Region’s Stock Order Guide for stock orders on both OTD and non-OTD vehicles included in Inventory Reframing. (WBDO will also update to show available options you can add to your stock configurations.)
 

Fleet orders are not impacted by Inventory Reframing. All configurations remain available on all Retail order types, including A/X/Z/D.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is great news! With Inventory Refaming, looks like Ford is now getting serious about these things.

  1. Listening to dealers and acting upon their feedback
  2. Reducing days supply for new vehicles. Prior to the chip shortage, Ford had among the highest levels of excess vehicle inventory in the industry.
  3. Encouraging retail sold orders for customers whose preferences diverge from the "highest selling and fastest turning configurations in each Region"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was about to say that’s exactly what I proposed a few months ago, but then I looked at the number of option combinations.  It’s still way too many for stock.

 

Expedition 202A - 10 Max packages and 9 Standard?  How does that help with inventory?  Great idea but cut down the packages.  Remember folks who want a specific option combination can still order that.  3-4 packages per vehicle would be ideal.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like this is good for everyone but the customer. I’ve bought a lot of vehicles, and not once has the dealer had the vehicle in the exact configuration I wanted in their dealer stock. They’ve always had to trade with another dealer to get it. If all the dealers in my region have the same stock vehicles, then it seems like I’m outta luck. 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ice-capades said:

Attached is a copy of the stock order specifications for the New York Region under the new Inventory Reframing process. 

 

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01.pdf

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_01.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_02.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_03.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_04.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_05.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_06.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_07.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_08.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_09.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_10.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_11.jpg

Inventory Reframing_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-01_Page_12.jpg

Joey,

Looks to me like they are forgetting about the "work truck" segment.  I'm not talking about "fleet", I'm talking about the tradesman who all of a sudden needs a new truck-but wants a little creature comfort and doesn't want an XL -and doesn't need a 250.  2 regular cab 150's offered and none are 4 x 4.  

 

And what about Super Cabs?  Minimal choices there.  Yeah I know..they have all the sales data.  But do they consider what the competition has on lots?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, T-dubz said:

Sounds like this is good for everyone but the customer. I’ve bought a lot of vehicles, and not once has the dealer had the vehicle in the exact configuration I wanted in their dealer stock. They’ve always had to trade with another dealer to get it. If all the dealers in my region have the same stock vehicles, then it seems like I’m outta luck. 


Well the theory was that this would allow you to find more vehicles in stock with what you want but you might have to take a few extra options you would not have ordered.

 

This was a big issue for me back in 2016.  We wanted a MKX Reserve which is the highest trim outside black labels.  But even on Reserves there were 3 option packages and I could not find a single MKX Reserve within 100 miles that had all 3 options.  And these were basic options like Adaptive cruise and auto wipers, not super luxury packages,  So because we didn’t want to wait we skipped adaptive cruise and a couple of other things and had to go with the 3.7L I stead of the 2.7LT.   The highest trim should have all those things standard at all dealers with the only options being color and vista roof.

 

Right now we’re looking at ordering a new Nautilus because the 24 way seats are not standard on any trim including black label and more than half the dealers don’t order them.

 

Obviously it’s harder with trucks with so many body and engine variations and appearance packages,    On the other hand it’s certainly no worse than what they have right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, akirby said:

I was about to say that’s exactly what I proposed a few months ago, but then I looked at the number of option combinations.  It’s still way too many for stock.

 

Expedition 202A - 10 Max packages and 9 Standard?  How does that help with inventory?  Great idea but cut down the packages.  Remember folks who want a specific option combination can still order that.  3-4 packages per vehicle would be ideal.

 

I'm assuming XLT is the biggest seller (makes sense given the price), so therefore they want a wider variety of XLT models?

 

To be fair, there are 2 sets of 2 lines for each the standard and Max wheelbases are the same but wheel options being the only difference, so not a huge change there.

 

4 hours ago, T-dubz said:

Sounds like this is good for everyone but the customer. I’ve bought a lot of vehicles, and not once has the dealer had the vehicle in the exact configuration I wanted in their dealer stock. They’ve always had to trade with another dealer to get it. If all the dealers in my region have the same stock vehicles, then it seems like I’m outta luck. 

 

1) Other dealers still may have an option combo you want vs. "your" dealer, there are just a lesser variety of combos available now, so you're correct, the chance that the other dealers have similar configurations to yours is higher.

 

2) You can always order one exactly how you want it then you don't have a problem at all finding what you want.  Hopefully Ford can do a better job at lessening how long it takes to have a custom order built.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

 

 

2) You can always order one exactly how you want it then you don't have a problem at all finding what you want.  Hopefully Ford can do a better job at lessening how long it takes to have a custom order built.


If it was 2 or 3 weeks, I’d be fine doing a special order, but I’m not waiting the months it takes now, especially since I’ll be losing value on my trade in the longer I wait.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, akirby said:

I was about to say that’s exactly what I proposed a few months ago, but then I looked at the number of option combinations.  It’s still way too many for stock.

 

Expedition 202A - 10 Max packages and 9 Standard?  How does that help with inventory?  Great idea but cut down the packages.  Remember folks who want a specific option combination can still order that.  3-4 packages per vehicle would be ideal.


Most dealers don't keep many Expeditions on the lot. Even the biggest ones around here only typically keep 4-5 at most. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


Most dealers don't keep many Expeditions on the lot. Even the biggest ones around here only typically keep 4-5 at most. 


So why would they want so many combos?  Dealers supposedly helped create these.  I don’t get it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, akirby said:


So why would they want so many combos?  Dealers supposedly helped create these.  I don’t get it.


I don't see it being a bad thing in the case of a lower volume unit like Expedition. It allows greater flexibility for dealers to stock what they know will sell so they're not sitting on multiple high dollar rocks for longer than necessary. I feel like that particular customer is among the most predictable customer that walks into a ford dealer. 
 

I feel like I didn't explain that very well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, akirby said:


So why would they want so many combos?  Dealers supposedly helped create these.  I don’t get it.

 

One thing I'm noticing here is that we're seeing the "New York region" guide to this.

 

Perhaps @ice-capades can elaborate on this thought if he knows.....

 

Since it mentioned trying to tailor dealer stock orders better to what sells in the particular regions - maybe since the "New York region" has (presumably) higher sales than other regions - say the "Wyoming region" (making that region up) - we're seeing a larger combination of available options available here for NY, whereas, it's quite possible that other regions have fewer combinations to choose from?

 

i.e. the Wyoming region has 5 total combo options for Expy because they sell a lot fewer units, whereas NY gets 19 because it needs a bigger variety to reasonably satisfy customer demands?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


I don't see it being a bad thing in the case of a lower volume unit like Expedition. It allows greater flexibility for dealers to stock what they know will sell so they're not sitting on multiple high dollar rocks for longer than necessary. I feel like that particular customer is among the most predictable customer that walks into a ford dealer. 
 

I feel like I didn't explain that very well. 


I get what you’re saying but then that’s not much different than before this program.  I suspect the dealers are scared to go too far with the restrictions at first.

 

Letting the dealers provide the different wheel options would also help a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

 

One thing I'm noticing here is that we're seeing the "New York region" guide to this.

 

Perhaps @ice-capades can elaborate on this thought if he knows.....

 

Since it mentioned trying to tailor dealer stock orders better to what sells in the particular regions - maybe since the "New York region" has (presumably) higher sales than other regions - say the "Wyoming region" (making that region up) - we're seeing a larger combination of available options available here for NY, whereas, it's quite possible that other regions have fewer combinations to choose from?

 

i.e. the Wyoming region has 5 total combo options for Expy because they sell a lot fewer units, whereas NY gets 19 because it needs a bigger variety to reasonably satisfy customer demands?


Im sure that’s what dealers think they need.  It just seems to me that they could get by with 3 trim levels in most cases - base, mid and fully loaded.  Especially if it allows the dealer to stock one of each in every color.  Most people would be willing to take a few options they don’t necessarily want if it means they can get the model and color they want in stock at multiple dealers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, T-dubz said:

Sounds like this is good for everyone but the customer. I’ve bought a lot of vehicles, and not once has the dealer had the vehicle in the exact configuration I wanted in their dealer stock. They’ve always had to trade with another dealer to get it. If all the dealers in my region have the same stock vehicles, then it seems like I’m outta luck. 

 

As long as dealers encourage more retail sold orders as Ford is recommending, the Inventory Framing program described in this thread is good for customers.

 

In the past, some dealers have been reticent to do retail sold orders. Those dealers instead pushed customers to choose dealer stock new vehicles that don't match their preferences or do a dealer trade. Both of those approaches are customer unfriendly.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done a quick review of the Ford Stock Inventory Reframing information and will make some general comments here until the new "Stock" Order Guides are published and loaded into the WBDO (Web Based Dealer Ordering) system. My comments are based on my 35 years of experience in the New York Region and reflect my stock ordering practices over the years. Many of those practices reflect what Ford is now about to implement which I'll describe here.

 

For many years, at the start of each new Model Year, I created what I considered to be the right/best mix of equipment groups, options, exterior and interior colors, etc. for each vehicle line for the dealership. Part of this was also based on experience with the Dealer Principal's other Ford dealerships in New York and Massachusetts in addition to my primary office in Connecticut. The objective was to create stock orders that met the dealership's best-selling vehicle configurations at the various model and price points so that the dealership always had multiple vehicles in stock at the same price point and in the most popular colors.

 

When new exterior paint colors were introduced that were questionable, the policy was to wait until I could actually see a vehicle in the new color before ordering one for stock inventory. There are new colors introduced each year that just don't look good or sell, and stocking vehicles in certain colors can mean they'll sit on the lot longer and increase floorplan financing expenses. 

 

The stock orders I created included the best-selling equipment and option combinations but did not include Dealer Installed Options. In the past year or so, Ford started encouraging dealerships to order more Dealer Installed Options and other miscellaneous options (Floor Liners, Roof Rack Crossbars, etc.) in order to increase sales. In return, Ford is paying dealerships $10 for each qualifying option added to an order. I understand the corporate objective, but it just adds to the basic vehicle cost at the dealership level as it eliminates the profit potential at the dealership level by selling these items to the buyer that actually wants them.

 

I stopped managing my dealership's USOB (Unscheduled Order Bank) over a year ago but still have access to all the information including the WBDO (Web Based Dealer Ordering) system. As such, I have access to seeing the details of all the dealership's stock orders which are now managed by the General Manager. There's little consistency now and similar vehicle orders now differ by specifications that make no sense, and some vehicle orders now include options that were never included, or considered desirable, on stock orders in the past.

 

This new Ford Stock Inventory Reframing launch is a good start but still includes too many equipment group and options but it's a start that I hope will be revised further. I've advocated for years a simplification of the stock inventory ordering process. This is a start and will hopefully lead to further simplification.     

 

 

 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/15/2022 at 6:16 PM, fuzzymoomoo said:


I don't see it being a bad thing in the case of a lower volume unit like Expedition. It allows greater flexibility for dealers to stock what they know will sell so they're not sitting on multiple high dollar rocks for longer than necessary. I feel like that particular customer is among the most predictable customer that walks into a ford dealer. 
 

I feel like I didn't explain that very well. 

Perhaps you are saying an Expedition customer knows what they want and are going to order what they want, so it doesn't matter what Ford stocks?

Edited by ScottK1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ScottK1 said:

Perhaps you are saying an Expedition customer knows what they want and are going to order what they want, so it doesn't matter what Ford stocks?


Yes and no. 

I know what I'm trying to say but I'm having a hard time putting words to it in a way that doesn't make me sound like I'm on crack. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must be on the outside looking in on this reframing thing. Looking at some of the combos available, it appears to me that they pretty much are made up how a dealer orders their stock now, and I am fully a timezone away from the NY region. I've been out of New Car Sales for over 25 years, but as I recall the wallflowers on the lot were mainly bubbled retail orders, or units shoved on us by the zone. I think reframing will take awhile to get traction, unless or until the competition does something similar. Then the builds could be reduced to two or three configurations, as the consumer adjusts to ordering out.

For retail customer order outs, I'd like to see Ford go back to the days when there were option package discounts for the groups. You could cherry pick your way through the Dealer Order Guide. It might cost more, or maybe less, than getting an option group with a discount depending on the options chosen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...
  • After nearly 37 years, I no longer have access to the FMCDealer.com portal. As a result, I will be unable to provide future "Ford Stock Inventory Reframing" updates.   
    • I will continue to provide assistance and support for any other issues or questions related to my experience. 
  • Attached are the latest stock order information updates. 

 

Ford_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-09-27_2023MY.pdf

Ford_Stock Order Guide Addendum_New York Region_2022-10-18_2023MY.pdf

Edited by ice-capades
Additional Content
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...