april2021 - 34

MANAGEMENT
		»A poorly designed and laid out
storeroom will cost money every day,
every year in perpetuity, not only
in cash but in extra labor too.
107092827 | Industryviews | Dreamstime

2.

Look closely at a number of bins in the
storeroom. Take note of the following:
*	Do any bins have more than one part?
*	Randomly sample four or five bins.
Compare count to inventory record.
*	Be sure to note any empty bins. For
those empty bins:
»Confirm
	
if any empty bins are showing a positive quality on-hand (QOH)
in the parts inventory system.
»Additionally,
	
check to see if parts
for those bins are on reorder, and if
those parts are to be delivered soon.

3.

Make note of the number of stock outs per
month, especially the number of essential parts causing downtime.

10 steps to assess
the parts storeroom
Follow this checklist to
evaluate how well a fleet
parts room is working.

Storerooms and storage of spare parts are
frequently an afterthought in the design of a
repair facility. Little thought often goes into
the location, layout, or even the amount of
space dedicated to parts. Other considerations,
including wanting the building to come in
under a budget, rule the decisions.
The fact is that a poorly designed and laid
out storeroom will cost money every day,
every year in perpetuity, not only in cash but
in extra labor too.
Shops would do well to review their current
storeroom layout. There are steps fleets can
take to clean up, organize, and optimize what
is on parts room shelves.

By Joel Levitt

PRESIDENT, SPRINGFIELD RESOURCES
Joel Levitt is the president of Springfield Resources, a
management consulting firm that services a variety of
clients on a wide range of maintenance issues. Levitt
has trained more than 17,000 maintenance leaders from
more than 3,000 organizations in 38 countries. He is also
the creator of Laser-Focused Training, a flexible training
program that provides specific, targeted training on your
schedule, online to one to 250 people in maintenance
management, asset management, and reliability.

34 Fleet Maintenance | April 2021

4.

Use work sampling, or something more
informal, to randomly sample waiting
time at the parts window. Report the average
and the standard deviation.

5.

How many parts have not moved at all
in the last year? Of these parts, which
ones are not on the critical or insurance policy
parts lists?

6.

Are the basic numbers of the warehouse
known? Examples include value of stock
(by category), number of SKUs, turnover, accuracy, etc.

7.

		»After completing a parts room
assessment, start a project to clean
the area where parts are stored.
61865844 | Corepics Vof | Dreamstime

Initial assessment

First off, take a walk on the wild side and visit
your parts storage areas with your eyes open.
There are 10 steps that can help a shop evaluate its current parts storeroom, which would
only take an hour or two. These steps include:

1.

Walk around and do a short assessment
of housekeeping. Ensure the floor is clean
and swept, and there are no empty boxes or
packing materials left around. Are trash cans
overflowing? Are there any safety issues that
stand out?

Choose a couple of spare parts to ask the
questions:
*	Is the piece starting to deteriorate, or is
the collected dust thick (showing it has
been there a while)?
*	Find an empty bin. Inspect the order
date of the part, or if there is no order,
find out why.

8.

Do you have an area for storing overnight
air or courier shipments? Check the dates
the shipment(s) arrived and figure out how long
it has been sitting there.

9.

Is there an area for rebuildable parts?
Is it marked? Can you quickly tell the
difference between outgoing and returned
rebuilt parts?

10.

Finally, talk to a few people, such as
the planner or other maintenance
personnel, and ask them their opinions about
parts and inventory.
After completing an initial parts room
assessment, start a project to clean the area
where parts are stored.
Next month we will review what to look for
and how to optimize the parts stock room.
april2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of april2021
