Mastering Landscape Equipment Parts Management: A Guide for Landscape Business Owners

As you gear up for the Spring season, it's essential to streamline your landscape maintenance parts inventory. Effective management of lawn mower parts that experience continuous friction, heat, and stress during operation is critical to uptime and making money.  Having the right inventory and a plan for quick access to critical parts will keep equipment and crews operating efficiently without downtime or unnecessary disruptions.

MowMore has created a list of best practices for landscapers and groundskeepers to have the equipment parts and supplies needed to get the best utilization from lawn mowers and employees.

Make an initial assessment of all your equipment and supplies.

1. Systematically identify and document each piece of equipment by Model # and Serial #.
2. For each model identify all consumable or high wear parts such as blades, belts, filters, spindles, wheels, and tires.

Knowing Part Numbers in advance makes ordering online quick and easy. A simple Excel spreadsheet works great for creating and managing equipment Bill of Materials (BOM). (To help, Mowmore has created a sample list at the end of the article. Call us if you need help with this.)

Forecast your annual replacement parts usage and establish required “parts on hand”.

1. Estimate which and how many high wear parts you replaced last year and what will be needed in the upcoming year. Consider current equipment condition, business growth, expected equipment usage, and seasonality.
2. Estimate usage of consumables such as oil, fluid, trimmer line, and edger blades.
3. Decide what parts and supplies you need in house and what you can order on demand. This should include consumables such as trimmer line and high wear such as mower blades.
4. Estimate annual expense of replacement parts and supplies.

Our experience shows that small landscapers spend between $3000 and $15,000 per year on consumable parts and supplies. Proper budgeting, pre-ordering, and inventory management will save time and money by eliminating downtime and providing bulk savings.

Streamline a process for equipment inspection, parts inventory levels, and ordering.

1. Inspect and maintain equipment regularly.

• Have a printed end-of-day checklist for equipment to identify any issues.
• Use a checklist to perform regular scheduled maintenance on each piece of equipment.
• Downtime costs money!

2. Establish a trusted relationship with a parts supplier such as MowMore.com.

• Equipment parts and supplies will be kept online via your purchasing history.
• A trusted relationship assures quality service from knowledgeable staff.

• Ordering critical parts and supplies in bulk to saves time and money.

4. Set minimum in-house inventory levels and check regularly to avoid disruptions due to limited availability or long lead times.
 
Conclusion:

Knowing your replacement parts and supplies usage is crucial to running an efficient profitable landscaping business. Pre-identified part numbers for all your equipment, a trusted supplier relationship, and documented maintenance schedules will reduce costs and downtime and provide better control and profitability for your landscaping business.

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Mower	Exmark Lazer Z ULTRACUT 60
Part *	OEM Part Number	Mowmore Part Number	Quantity
Blade, high-lift	116-5176-S	EX25-601	3
Blade, mulching	116-5177-S	EX25-602	3
Belt, pump drive	109-8073	EX10-343	1
Belt, deck drive	116-1985	EX10-197	1
Spindle assembly	116-5712	EX82-344	3
Idler pulley, flat	116-4667	EX84-006	3
Idler pulley, V-groove	1-633109	EX84-007	1
Fuel filter	109-5853	EX80-782	1
Oil filter	120-3452	EX80-204	1
Air filter, inner	130-3847-S	EX80-808	1
Air filter, outer	130-9687	EX80-809	1
Spark plug	109-0467	EX80-713	3
Deck wheel	1-603299	EX82-394	4
Tire, drive	109-2678	EX83-132	2
Note: * Mowmore part numbers are designed to be interchangeable with OEM part numbers, however, it is always best to verify that the part will fit your specific machine.