"I'll have to come back with the part"
The engineer arrives, diagnoses the fault, and finds they do not have the part. It might be at the depot. It might be on another engineer's van two miles away. It might have run out weeks ago without anyone noticing. Either way, the customer hears the words nobody wants to say: I'll have to come back.
Meanwhile, the stores think the van is fully stocked because it was filled at the start of the month, and some vans are carrying parts that have not moved in a year.
Why van stock is invisible
Stock systems usually track the warehouse well and the vans badly. Once a part leaves the depot on a van, it is often treated as used. What happens to it after that, whether it is fitted, returned, swapped with a colleague or lost, is not recorded.
Engineers may write parts on the job sheet, but that information goes to invoicing, not to stock. And restocking is often done by eye, or by a weekly phone call, so the van's contents depend on what the engineer remembers they used.
Without a live picture of each van, the office cannot allocate the job to the engineer who has the part, and nobody spots slow-moving stock tying up money.
The cost of not knowing
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Missing part on site | Return visit, extra travel, unhappy customer |
| Parts used but not billed | Revenue lost when job sheets miss them |
| Overstocked vans | Money tied up in parts that sit for months |
| Emergency buying | Paying trade counter prices for urgent parts |
| Shrinkage | Parts that go missing with no trail |
Return visits are the most visible cost, but the unbilled parts are often the bigger one over a year, because they are never noticed at all.
What we build
- Vans as locations. In your stock system, or in a stock module we build, each van becomes a stock location with its own quantities and a target stock list.
- Log parts on the job. In the engineer's app, parts are picked from a list or scanned by barcode as they are fitted. That reduces the van's stock and adds the part to the job for invoicing, in one step.
- Transfers. When engineers swap parts or return them to the depot, a quick transfer in the app keeps the numbers right.
- Restock lists. Each day or week, a restock list for each van is generated from what was used against its target list, ready for the stores team to pick.
- Find a part. The office and engineers can search which van or depot holds a part, so a job can go to the right engineer or a part can be collected on the way.
- Stock checks. Periodic van counts are done in the app, and differences are recorded and reported rather than silently corrected.
Where you already use a stock system with an API, such as the inventory side of an accounting package or a dedicated warehouse system, we connect to it rather than creating a second stock record.
What changes on the road
Jobs that need a specific part can go to the engineer carrying it. Engineers see what they have before they set off. Parts fitted are billed because logging the part and adding it to the job are the same tap.
The stores team restocks from a list rather than a phone call, and slow-moving parts show up in reports so they can be pulled back to the depot.
Over time the target stock list for each van gets better too. Usage data shows which parts are fitted often and which ride around untouched, so the list can be adjusted by type of work and area rather than set once and forgotten.
Does this sound familiar?
- Engineers regularly need a return visit for a missing part
- Nobody knows exactly what is on each van
- Parts fitted do not always make it onto invoices
- Restocking is done by eye or by phone
- Some vans carry stock that never moves