The
growth of the transmission industry has been accompanied by an evolution in the supply
channel for hardparts. In the infancy of our industry, it was common for shops needing a
part to make call after call to local salvage yards in search of the required component.
With the need for transmission hardparts quickly expanding, companies were formed or
evolved from salvage yards that could specialize in acquiring these parts and supplying
them to rebuilding operations.
To fill the need for this market, Hardparts For Transmissions was formed. Initially, there
were only a few companies in the United States that were rebuilding transmission units.
Seeing a need for this product, Bob Bogan decided to start HFT. With the influx of so many
different transmission units, warehouse distributors couldn't afford to stock everything
that was necessary to support hard-part needs of the shops, maintain inventory and get it
to their customer quickly.
Remanufactured,
Reconditioned or Used? by Bob Bogan
Often the term "remanufactured" or "reconditioned" part is a misnomer
to the actual process that has taken place. If all that was done is to address the
cosmetics of the part, then I would question referring to that part as remanufactured or
reconditioned.
An example of our thoughts on a remanufactured part, an ATX split planet. The OEM
manufacturer made the splines on the end of the planetary too soft, so they tend to strip
out. When you remove this planetary from a bad transmission, the splines are almost smooth
and it looks almost like a bushing surface.
A number of companies take this part and cut that area out, put on a sleeve with a
hardened splines on it and by this process have, in fact, made that a better part then the
OEM part. The harder spline results in a more durable unit, and you have, what I believe
to be a perfect example of remanufacturing or reconditioning. You've done something to
that product that has made it as good as or better than the original product. If all we
are doing is cosmetic work on a part, I really don't consider that to be remanufactured
and would still apply the term used as a description of the part.
In our plant we have completely dismantled and reassembled every differential. Only in the
case of the Audi and Volkswagen units do we claim that these are reconditioned units.
These units, more durable than their OEM counterparts, are given our extended guarantee.
In all other instances we refer to the differentials as "good used parts"
because they have been disassembled and inspected, and we can say it with assurance that
we're selling a good used part.
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