Almost every workshop store has the same two complaints at once: too much money sitting in stock, and the part needed today is not there. Both are true, and they have the same cause.
Stock is held based on what somebody once ran out of, rather than on what actually gets consumed.
Issue against the job card, always
If parts leave the store without a job card, consumption data is fiction and so is maintenance cost per vehicle.
This is the control people resist, because a mechanic needs a washer and raising paperwork feels absurd. The answer is to make the transaction fast — scan the job, scan the part, done — rather than to waive the rule, because a waived rule becomes the norm within a fortnight.
Reorder levels should come from consumption
A reorder level set once at commissioning and never revisited is a guess preserved in amber. With twelve months of issue history you can set levels from actual consumption and lead time, and review them when either changes.
The items worth attention are the fast movers and the expensive slow movers. The cheap slow movers can be left alone — the capital tied up is trivial and the analysis costs more than the saving.
Preventive schedules should drive purchasing
This is the connection most workshops never make. If the system knows twelve services are due next month and what each consumes, it knows what to buy — rather than discovering it at the counter.
Done properly this reduces both problems at once: less emergency purchasing at whatever price is available, and less dead stock bought on a hunch.
Count what matters, often
An annual full stocktake finds errors a year after they happened, by which time the cause is unknowable. Cycle counting — a small number of items every week, weighted toward fast and expensive movers — finds discrepancies while the trail is warm.
It is also considerably less disruptive, which means it actually happens.
Common questions
How should workshop parts be issued?
Against an authorised job card, every time. Parts leaving without one make both consumption data and per-vehicle maintenance cost unreliable. Make the transaction fast rather than waiving the rule.
How do you set reorder levels for spares?
From twelve months of actual consumption and supplier lead time, reviewed when either changes. Levels set once at commissioning and never revisited are the main cause of simultaneous overstock and shortage.
Is an annual stocktake enough?
No. It finds errors up to a year after they occurred, when the cause cannot be traced. Cycle counting weighted toward fast and expensive items finds discrepancies while they can still be explained.