Kevin Matthews

I have been in the automotive industry since leaving school. Completing YTS City & Guilds 383, Repair & servicing of road vehicles. I have 30 years experience working within and managing a parts department.

Fully trained mechanic to City & Guilds level 3 in 383 Repair, Servicing & Maintenance of Road Vehicles. I have also been trained in tyre fitting & repair. Whilst I have been employed in a workshop since the early 1990's. I have repaired & maintained my own vehicles. I have also assisted in the workshops of where I have worked when the need arose. Carrying out basic servicing, Tyre fitting/repairs, used vehicle prep inspections & repairs. Also carrying out new vehicle pre delivery inspections.

In my roles in the parts departments. I have been responsible for running them by myself or with a small team of 1 or 2 parts advisors and 2 drivers. Duties included cash handling, serving retail, trade customers along with internal departments and workshop counters. Identifying & ordering parts/accessories as per requirements and keeping customers informed of any delays. Stock profile management, including reducing slow moving stock to reduce obsolescence. Working with supplier delivery schedules to ensure sufficient stock levels were maintained. Daily checks on backordered items to keep both internal and external customers up to date with the progress of their orders. When needed, sourcing parts from alternative sources. I carried out weekly and monthly stock perpetual stock checks as well as running full stock checks twice a year in some companies. 

Pre-picking/ordering of parts for vehicles booked in. Pricing up vehicle health checks and repair orders to a high standard to reduce any errors in quoting customers. 

I have also ran Ebay shops, which provided additional income and helped with reducing parts obsolescence.

City & Guilds 383 Level 3, which gives me a very good understanding of vehicle layout and what associated parts are which maybe required to carry out repairs.