robin craig Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 (edited) Gents, As some of you realise, while I am an MV guy at heart it is my job as well by virtue of the fact that I manage a collection of vehicles for my employer. This is only a small part of the very varied job I do, but the most visible as few are interested in the other parts I fear. I have to state right from the start, this is what works for us, I'm not a computer whizz, just someone with a need and a logical solution. The basic problem was getting a grip on the spare parts built up over the years by the owner while buying vehicles, placing them in a secure dry place and making an easy to use inventory system. Parts had historically been buried in cabinets and boxes and trunks spread over the buildings on the property. When vehicles were being worked on it was difficult to know if brake shoes or bulbs or other widgets were in stock and for a time it was easier to just order more new parts than rummage through inventory in the vain hope of finding the required spares. Money and time wasted. Step 1 was taken by emptying a vehicle storage building and bringing all the parts in from their hiding places and sorting them into groupings by vehicle or usage on tarpaulins placed on the floor. This meant a keen eye was required in identifying most of them by eye and then back tracking into manuals to find part numbers. Some items have many part numbers, an FV number, a Land Rover part number, a Supacat number to name just one line of parts we have. This is typical where a part for a Supacat has the FV number, a Land Rover number bcause thats the original source and Supacat's own part number. Being able to spot the parts and know what they will also fit is a huge part of not duplicating inventory and also reducing one's costs when you know where to buy from. Step 2 was bringing in a 20 ft ISO sea container and placing it on site and fitting it with secondhand steel shelving. We put one bank across the back wall and one down each side and a wider set down the middle. Step 3 was taking each part and recording it and placing it on the shelves. This was accompanied by taking photos of items that we felt was important, this was done for the Clansman cables with both ends of the cable shown in the picture. We did not have the proper nomenclature of Clansmen so this works for us. Step 4 was entering the parts to an Excel spreadsheet that shows from left to right the following info. Column A is our unique number, it is a four digit number in reality on the tags but on the spreadsheet shows as a sequential number without 0 prefixes Column B gives our description of the item based on key words Column C gives a group category of what it fits, you will see in that column that CVR(T) items are group 22 and CVR(W) are 23 and that parts that have a wide usage in the fleet have 20 refering Brit MVs as described above. Column D gives the shelf row, shelf column, shelf level A4D is the A shelf row, 4th column in and D shelf in that column. You will note that the picture taken was done in mid process as we had assigned our unique numbers and descriptions but had not actually put them on the shelf which determines what fits physically, and this is entered once we have come back from planting them on the shelves. This is what we were doing today when the picture was taken. Column E gives quantities of that part number and condition notes and also what other vehicles it fits. The various pictures show piles of tagged parts in the back of the Mule going out from the shop today, as we were doing the inventory addition from a parts purchase a while ago, we just had not gotten around to doing this job. The other pictures show inside the container and just how much can be piled in and still make sense. My final comments are that this "candy store" has to be kept locked at all times and control of who goes in and what comes out is paramount otherwise the effort is wasted. This causes obvious clashes. I hope you enjoy this and welcome comments and discussion Robin Edited November 11, 2010 by robin craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Very impressive! Don't forget to keep a backup of the Excel file .... Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulob1 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 that is sweet and very professional...I could do with something like that, but i dont have someone looking after my toys like that yet... will do sooner or later I SUPPOSE... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver99 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 that is sweet and very professional...I could do with something like that, but i dont have someone looking after my toys like that yet... will do sooner or later I SUPPOSE... where do i send my cv? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulob1 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 where do i send my cv? you can pm me on here.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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