SYSTEMATIZING SMALL STORES.
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Spares Represent Money, and it Pays to Prevent Leakage.
THESE NOTES on the arranging and systematizing of small stores are chiefly intended as a guide to those who run fleets of commercial vehicles sufficiently large to warrant the provision of sonlething better than the small lock-up under the personal supervision of the foreman-; they may also apply to the smaller repair shops where elaborate stores and complicated systems are neither necessary nor beneficial. At the same time they may be modified to suit particular requirements. , The first consideration is to choose a suitable building, or part of a building. It is essential that the stores be thief-proof, as spare parts;,partioularIy of the negotiable variety, such as spailing plugs, have a persistent habit of disappearing in small quantities.
If it is intended to keep heavy parts upstairs, it will be necessary thoroughly to examine the floor in order to ascertain if it is strong enough for the purpose. As regards size, this depends upon theamount of material to be stored. It must be remembered that although an enormous amount of n-:aterial can be stowed away in a comparatively small space, it may be a matter of great difficulty to extract particular parts as they are required, and, therefore, the whole idea of a stores, as a place whore parts can be found with a minimum of trouble, is lost. Steel bins are the best, but sugar boxes subdivideh for the smaller parts and placed back to bark in rows, with others arranged round the walls, are serviceable and cheap; if thought more convenient the boxes can be arranged into sections, one for each type of vehicle, and these sections can usefully take the form of small rooms without roofs, the walls of the rooms being formed of bins. The door or doors of the stores should ho kept locked, and the delivery of goods made through a sliding shutter, which should preferably be under observation from the office ; this, chiefly because more time is lost in many places through men ostensibly waiting for stores than through any other cause. Fetching a bolt or nut from the stores forms a convenient excuse for wasting a quarter of an hour
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It is most important to exclude all persons from the stores except the actual storekeeper, and no pretext should be accepted for allowing unauthorized persons to enter If this rule be strictly adhered to, the storekeeper can be held personally responsible for the stock.
It is sometimes found advantageous, with a small stores, to open them during certain hours only ; during the closed hours, the storekeeper may be usefully employed on other work, or in checking over his stocks and keeping the bin cards—about which we shall have something to say—up to date. The best system for a small stores is the bin card system. At the top of each card is the number of the bin and thename and number of the part ; there are also sometimes .spaces' for minimum and maximum stocks. The rest of the card is ruled off for the date, requisition, number, quantity requisitioned or ordered, quantity .received, quantity issued, and stock; the final numbers under the last heading must agree with the stock in the bin, or be the subject of investigation. All stores received should also be noted on the cards preferably in red ink.. As regards minimum stock, this depends entirely upon the number of the particular part used, and a convenient minimum is the number used per month. It Is the duty of the storekeeper to note when any
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stock falls below the minimum, and to send in a report of These stocks to the office at least once a week so that freshstocks may be ordered in ample time. • The maximum stock can conveniently be the require, ments -for, say, three months. 1 A suggested form of stores bin card is a.s follows:— All parts in the stores liable to corrosidn should be kept well oiled, and the parts, where possible, should-be stacked up in rows in the bins so. that their numbers can be checked almost at a glance. A list should be hung up hi the stores giving the numbers of the various parts and the numbers of the bins in which they are kept. This will obviate the necessity for a search through a number of bins, and the finding of the parts will not depend upon one man, as is so often the case; in such circumstances if this man falls ill, or is dismissed, it is sometimes a matter of considerable time to find the situation of every part. The question of storing tools is also of great importance, as their value is, in many cases, considerable, even when the total number of vehicles dealt with is quite small. , The tool stores should be as close to the gimps as-possible. If the staff be small, a book can be kept, each page of which should be divided into three columns: the first for a description of the tool on loan ; the second is for the signature of the man borrowing the tool; the third for the initials pr signature of the man when the tool is returned. By the use of this method, a man cannot refute the statement of the storekeeper as td whether a tool has been returned or not.
If the staff be a fairly large one, the men can be provided with tickets on which they write their names and the tools required. These are handed into the tool stores in exchange for the tools and, when the latter are handed back, the tickets are-returned. By this means, if. .the tickets are filed for eachatype of tool, the location of theilatter can be verified without searching through the books. As regards the tools which should be kept in the stores, all of any considerable value should certainly be kept under lock and key, particularly taps, dies, reamers and drills.
Small tools such as hammers, files, etc.. are usually issued to the men as complete kits, and are signed for when the men start, being handed back only when they leave the job. Replacements for files, hacksaws, and other tools liable to wear or breakage should only be issued in exchange for worn or broken tools.