How Do We Know Which Lift Spares Each Engineer Is Carrying Before We Send Them to a Breakdown?

The part was in the van twenty minutes away

A lift in a retail unit is off with a failed door contact. The engineer attending does not carry that type, so the office orders one from the supplier for next-day delivery and tells the customer the lift will be off overnight. The following morning, another engineer mentions over coffee that he has three of those contacts in his van, because he covers the older lifts on the other side of town.

Meanwhile the stores has shelves of parts for lifts that left your contracts years ago, and engineers keep a private stash of the spares they know they will need, because they do not trust the stores to have them.

Why van stock is invisible

Lift spares are varied. Different manufacturers, different controller generations, different door equipment, all needing different parts. Engineers stock their vans for the lifts they know, which is sensible, but the knowledge stays with them.

• Parts taken from stores are not booked out to a van.
• Parts used on jobs are not always recorded against the job.
• Engineers top up from suppliers directly, on a card or trade account.
• Nobody has a list of what each van holds.
• Stores holds stock for lifts that are no longer on contract.

Invisible stock is expensive

Lifts stay off longer while parts are ordered that already exist in the business. Money sits in duplicated spares across vans and stores. Obsolete parts gather dust while useful ones run out. Parts used on chargeable jobs are not billed because nobody recorded them. And when an engineer leaves, their van stock has to be counted from scratch.

Van stock tracking engineers will actually keep up

We build a stock system for vans and stores that asks as little of engineers as possible, linked to your jobs and lift records.

1. Each van and the stores are treated as stock locations. A starting count is done once, with engineers scanning or picking parts on their phone.
2. When an engineer records parts used on a job, they come off their van stock automatically, and chargeable parts go onto the job for invoicing.
3. Parts taken from stores are booked to the van with a quick scan or pick.
4. Suggested van stock is worked out per engineer from the lifts on their patch and from what they have used, and a restock list is produced each week.
5. During a breakdown, the office can search for a part and see which vans and stores have it, and how far each engineer is from the site.
6. Parts that belong to lifts no longer on contract are flagged for return, sale or disposal.

We keep counting light. Engineers are asked for occasional spot checks on a few items, not a full van count every week.

A breakdown with the part already nearby

The office sees that the contact is in a van twelve minutes from the site. The engineer attending picks it up on the way, or the second engineer drops by. The lift can be back in service without waiting on a delivery. The part used comes off the van, goes onto the job, and appears on next week's restock list. Nothing depends on a conversation over coffee.

Keeping it honest over time

Stock records drift in any business, and van stock drifts faster than most. So the system asks for small, regular checks rather than a big annual count. Each week an engineer might be asked to confirm how many of three particular items they hold, chosen from the parts they use most or the ones that have moved oddly. Differences are corrected with a note, and repeated gaps on the same part show the office where the process is leaking, for example parts being used on jobs without being recorded.

Is your stock like this?

• You order parts that turn out to be in a colleague's van.
• Engineers keep private stashes because stores cannot be relied on.
• Parts used on chargeable jobs are sometimes not billed.
• Stores holds parts for lifts you no longer maintain.
• Nobody could list what is in each van today.