by Natalie Edwards

Give us a cheer if you love managing stock!....Yeah we didn't think so. You'd rather be getting on with production than spending time counting stock, tracking what's being used and where, and analysing before placing orders with suppliers....So why should you learn to LOVE managing stock?

Cutting straight to the chase, if you've never put much effort into consumable stock management, you don't know what you're missing out on! While there are parts to stock management that make you want to bury your head in the sand, there are also some real benefits such as:

  • Increase productivity and efficiency
  • Save time and money
  • Improve order accuracy and lower costs

On the other hand, if you don't practice good inventory control, you're probably noticing things like:
  • Stock run-outs
  • Frequent backorders
  • Trips to the store to pick up supplies
  • Increased orders with suppliers

What's involved and why should I LOVE it?

Stock/inventory management is basically just keeping track of what stock is being purchased and how it's being used. There are numerous ways to do this depending on the size of your workshop and your resources. See our 5 best practices for consumable stock management here.

So why should I learn to love it? How is it going to help?

  • See increased productivity and efficiency

Having the right consumable stock on hand means staff can get in and do the job. We all know the snowball effect on a job when it's held up by supplies not being available right away. Knowing what's happening with the stock lets you analyse and improve processes. The better your processes, the less likely it is you'll get stock run-outs. At the same time it means you can implement lean ordering processes like Kanban so you're not holding on to too much stock. This gives you better cash-flow.

  • Save time and money

Figuring out what needs ordering can take quite a bit of time when you don't know what's been used, or what's likely to be used next week. If you've never had a proper process in place, you probably don't realise how much time is actually being wasted on ordering. Then of course there's the time wasted placing additional orders for missed items, going to the local shop to pick up urgent items you didn't know you were out of, and of course the delays on actually getting the job done and out the door to customers. All that time adds up to some real $$$!

  • Improve order accuracy and lowers costs

Stock management processes give you the ability to more accurately predict how much of something needs to be ordered, and also alerts you to what items need ordering. This could mean the difference between placing 1 order a week to 3 or 4. For a start, this saves you on shipping and ordering time costs. Then it also saves on the cost of buying and storing unnecessary items that won't be used.

So to sum up, implementing stock management into your workshop will SAVE MONEY, INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY and make your workshop MORE EFFICIENT! So why wouldn't you do it?