Industrial spare-parts stores

Before

The factory had two stores: the central warehouse and the point of use beside the assembly line. Receipts stayed in the central book and line issues in the supervisor's book. Between counts, a missing bearing showed up mid-shift, with the machine stopped, when the supervisor called purchasing. Purchasing learned that day what was not there, and the order slipped to the next week.

Transfers between the two stores were often not posted. A bearing that left central for the line in the morning was in both places by evening, or in neither. The batch was written on the carton, and a return could not say which shipment the part came from. The accountant's balance was not what the storekeeper saw on the shelf.

What was built

The item card keeps stock down to bin and batch. BRG-4410 sits in bin A-12-04, and every receipt and issue posts to that card. The reorder point is filled from the last three months of use. When stock crosses it, the row appears on purchasing's shortage report before the line stops.

A transfer from central to the line has a source and a destination. Goods do not float. The storekeeper posts the quantity, the accountant sees the voucher, and the manager reads the balance. Nobody corrects stock in a personal sheet.

A working day

In the morning a bearing shipment arrives. The storekeeper posts the receipt on BRG-4410, writes the batch, and picks bin A-12-04. At noon assembly asks for an issue. The issue draws from that batch, the line store goes up, and central goes down. If it passes the reorder point, purchasing sees the row that afternoon and raises the order from the card.

The weekend count brings forward only the rows that differ. The accountant sees the adjustment and its reason. The manager does not have to decide which of the two books is telling the truth.

The result

The bearing shortage showed before the line stopped. Purchasing works from the report, and the shift supervisor is no longer the messenger. The hand count left the daily flow and stayed as a monthly check.

The balance became trustworthy because central, the line store, and accounting point at one card. A return has a batch too, so it is possible to say which shipment the part came from.