Missing parts?

[TOLPARTSMGR]

Throughout the month me and my parts guys do perpetual bin counts and every time we count there's always things missing, I also find that sometimes we might sell something and go to shelf to pull it and it not be there. Whenever I find that we are short on something, I do my research to try to figure out why its not there. I know mistakes are made and sometimes my guys bill out a certain number and pull something else that's just part of the business. But it seems like it happens a little to much in my department. I trust my guys and I don't think anyone's stealing anything but I need some advice on what you guys do when stuff like this happens. I have a really good guy in shipping and receiving and we verify on a daily basis what comes in I also spot check to make sure everything that came in that morning posted. I also run an "outstanding orders report" daily to see if there's anything other then what back ordered on there. I don't have to much experience in figuring things like this out but I'm expected to look over this investment (parts inventory) so I have to put my finger on this. Any advise would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance. P.S I use Reynolds & Reynolds as my DMS.

[Remy]

I completely understand, and it is damn frustrating when this happens and you just can see why, I had a issue with this at one point and also could not nail down the cause, same as you have good people, been doing their jobs for many, many years, all very trusted, but still the issue of missing inventory lingered. I started to look at all the same things you did, but also added watching the counter people and how they processed the work load, and found some of the cause for missing inventory. I would notice some of the time, usually when we were busier, they would get back quotes that had sold on the tech counter, they would go grab the items needed and get back to their work space after handing part(s) to the tech, and get a phone call or interrupted by something and then not bill the part(s) they handed out, A simple error, but an error none the less. People get busy, set things down and forget, it happens to all of us, so I made it a point to have my people Bill the items first, then pull them, this way, they were charge out when they were handed across the counter. it stopped a good part of my issue and helped a lot.

[greenthumb-38]

Maybe developing a department policy on workflow... namely, only pull parts with a pick ticket in hand, not off of a quote or req. Charge the parts to the RO, then print a pick ticket, then pull the parts.

Life (and work) are a series of habits, this is a habit that I would highly recommend.

~ gt

[BrianD]

I've had to limit access to 2062 and 2063 because people were double posting items. Not saying that's taken all my problems away, but it was a good start.