A lot of capital sits in your storeroom. Yet inventory management is one of the most overlooked parts of maintenance management.
MPulse can help you with storeroom management, preventing time- and money-wasting problems like running out of parts, searching for lost parts, or duplicating inventory you didn’t know you had.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Identify Vendors and Contractors
MPulse vendor management software tools offer one place to manage all your vendors and track important information. You’ll link these records with inventory items, and then both will link to assets and work orders.
Start by entering all important vendor information. Include anything that your team might normally have to look up like names, contact information, and shipping details. All of this data will be available to your team with just a click.
Step 2: Enter Inventory into MPulse
Next add inventory records for frequently used parts and supplies. In addition to details like part names and numbers, MPulse lets you enter stocking levels, reorder points, storage locations, and supplier information. You can also track various units of measure for a single inventory item. For example, you might purchase oil by the barrel, but use it by the quart.
We also recommend identifying where parts or materials are stored. That makes it quicker and easier for staff members to find them, and prevents duplicate orders because someone didn’t look in the right place.
Note that many items may have more than one supplier, so you can link both a primary and secondary vendor to an inventory record. You also can configure custom fields for anything else your organization wants to report on or track.
Step 3: Link to Assets
Next, you’ll link inventory records to the appropriate assets to record your inventory and parts usage. These records will also link with any work orders on that asset, so your team has everything they need in one place.
You can use MPulse to enable coworkers to reserve certain inventory items, ensuring the right parts are available for a particular job. You also can track issue quantities for situations where you only have one part on hand when the job takes two.
Step 4: Track Usage and Set Order Points
MPulse allows you to control your stock based on need and availability. As a result, the right parts are on the shelf, yet you can minimize other parts that are used less frequently. You also can use MPulse’s min/max notification field, so you’ll know it’s time to order when supplies get low.
MPulse can streamline reordering by determining current inventory levels and automatically generating purchase orders based on need. For example, if a critical part has a three-week lead time, you can adjust stocking levels to make sure it is available when your staff needs it. You also can control capital outlays by identifying unused or slow-moving parts to return to the vendor.
Step 5: Purchase Requisitions
Our Purchase Requisitions feature is a comprehensive tool for managing requisitioning and ordering. You can monitor work orders, reorder lists, and requisition records, and then produce requisitions or POs as needed.
MPulse Purchase Requisitions can help you manage shipments, vendor performance, and warranty information. It also allows you to easily track orders and requisitions all the way through receiving and restocking.
Step 6: Inventory Counts
Most companies regularly audit their inventory and reconcile their recorded stock levels with the inventory that is physically present on their shelves.
MPulse can help you automate cyclical inventory counts, reducing the man hours needed and ensuring the parts or materials in the system are actually sitting on the shelf or in the parts bin.
Inventory is an asset, and it needs to be monitored like any asset. By ignoring inventory control management, you’re losing out on the fastest way to find real savings for your organization.
How could MPulse CMMS software help in your stockroom? Leave a comment or contact us.
