Lean 5S for Custodial – The Waste of Inventory
Do you need excess inventory? Are your suppliers reliable? Both questions you should ask yourself when evaluating how much inventory you keep on hand of anything. Many of us keep a “just in case” excess of stock when we don’t really need to. I still see customers that order months worth of inventory at a time because they believe they will be able to purchase it for less money which does work in a few cases. But what are the costs of holding on to too much inventory? There is a risk of damage if items are in the way of traffic, or the storage area is somewhere that could get flooded. There is a cost of carrying inventory, especially if money was borrowed to purchase it. Regularly used items should have a short lead time and be available when you need it. Reviewing your usages by the monthly a minimum and knowing the lead time from your supplier should help you determine what amount you should have on your shelf. If you do not have this information, if you have consistently used a supplier they should be able to provide the information to you. Spikes in usage should also be captured in this information so you can plan accordingly. For your higher volumne product, you should not have to keep alot on the shelf.
Another waste of inventory may be stocking the same item in multiple locations to the maximum level that you might need. Look at the flow of materials through your building and perhaps you can replenish smaller/lower usage locations from a central storage area on a scheduled basis. This might prevent too much inventory from ending up on all shelves.
This also will cause a waste of time sorting through inventory to find what you need. There may also be a shelf life on certain products and if stock is not rotated this could become a problem leading to waste.
Homework assignment: Check out your inventory storage areas and map our your flow of materials through your buildings.
