Plenty of chargers, just not that one
The warehouse shelf says there are twenty chargers. Tomorrow's installs need a tethered unit in black with the longer cable, an untethered white one with a particular socket, and a specific smart model the customer chose because of their tariff. At six in the morning the fitter finds the black one is not there. It went out yesterday on a job that could have taken any colour.
So he takes a substitute and hopes the customer does not mind, or the job is rescheduled while a unit is ordered.
Counting chargers, not the variants
Chargers look like one product and behave like a dozen. Each model comes in variants the customer cares about: tethered or socket, cable length, colour, connectivity. Customers choose at quote stage, sometimes weeks before install. If stock is tracked as a single count, or not tracked at all, nothing links a unit on the shelf to the customer who chose it.
- Stock is counted by model, not by variant.
- Fitters pick from the shelf on the morning of the job.
- Nothing reserves a unit when a job is booked.
- Orders to distributors are placed when someone notices the shelf looks thin.
- Units in vans are invisible to the office.
When the wrong unit goes out
A substituted charger annoys a customer who chose carefully. A rescheduled install costs you a slot and a van day. Units ordered in a panic come at worse terms or longer lead times. And because serials are not recorded against jobs, warranty and support work later starts with a guess about which unit is where.
Grant-funded and partner jobs add another layer. Some partners supply their own units, some specify a model, and some pay a different price for the same box. When stock is one number on a shelf, a partner's unit can end up on a private job, and the next partner install is short.
Allocation that follows the diary
- We set up stock by variant: model, tethered or socket, cable length, colour, and anything else that matters to your customers. Locations include the warehouse and each van.
- When a job is booked, the variant the customer accepted is reserved against it. The shelf count shows free units and reserved units separately.
- A lookahead report compares the next few weeks of booked installs with free stock and highlights shortfalls by variant, in time to order.
- Purchase orders to your distributors can be drafted from the shortfall, for a person to approve and send.
- At loading, the fitter scans the unit into their van against the job, and at install scans it again, so the serial is tied to the customer.
- Returns, damaged units and swaps are recorded with a reason, so the count stays true.
| Moment | Now | With allocation |
|---|---|---|
| Job booked | Nothing happens to stock | Specific variant reserved |
| Stock review | A look at the shelf | Lookahead of shortfalls by variant |
| Ordering | When it looks thin | Draft order from the gap |
| Van loading | Pick what is there | Scan the reserved unit to the job |
| Install | Serial on a photo | Serial tied to the customer |
If your job management software or accounts package already holds stock, we build the reservation and lookahead around it rather than creating a second stock list.
Mornings without the scramble
Fitters load what is reserved for their jobs and leave. The office sees shortages weeks ahead, not at the warehouse door. Customers get the charger they chose. And every installed serial is linked to a customer from day one, which makes support and warranty work straightforward.
Tell-tale signs
- Fitters have substituted a different variant on the day.
- Installs have moved because the right unit was not in stock.
- Orders to distributors are reactive and rushed.
- Nobody knows what chargers are sitting in which van.
- Serials are not linked to customers until someone needs them.