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Safe custody of materials received in
stores happens to be the foremost activity and
concern of any stores.
Materials received from various
sources need to be stored properly in Stores for ensuring
the proper upkeep of material till its use, to ensure
security and safety of the material, the ease of retrieval
and handling. The various aspects considered in the
storage of material are as given below:
Central stores- Sub stores :
The materials used by multiple users are usually stored at
a central stores from where all the users get the
material. On the other hand, material which are used in a
particular user department only can be stored in a stores
nearer to that department itself . Such Stores are Sub
stores in which all department / shop/ user specific items and some regularly
used central items are stored.
Commodity wise Stores :
The storage of material is also done on the basis of the
nature of the commodity being stored as the storage
requirement, handling requirement and the precautions to
be taken depend , to a great extent, on the commodity being stored.
For example, Lubricants are stored in a Lubricant stores in drums are
located in a central storage from where lubricants can be pumped
out to
users. Similarly,
Refractory bricks & other Refractory items are stored in
the Refractory Stores.
Gasses are Stored in cylinders in Gas stores.
Mechanical & electrical Spares & consumables are stored in
the respective Spares Stores/ consumable stores.
Petrol & diesel are stored in centralized storage with
pumping facility for dispensing.
Codification / Cataloguing of items:
While using large number
of items it is difficult to identify, account and handle
the material by its nomenclature alone. There can be near
similar nomenclature yet items may be different. So,
in order to identify , each item is
given a unique code representing that item alone for
enabling easy identification, accounting and handling it.
The item code thus becomes a the communicating
mode for the item in the company and even outside.
These item codes while associated with full description of
the item are also known as catalogue number of the
item. Thus for a scientific management , the items being
handled by a stores need to be properly codified.
The codes are specific to an item and therefore
are non repetitive and unique for each item.
Bin Card :
Bin card is the document in the stores custody where the
history of transactions of an item is maintained. There
are separate bin cards maintained for each of the stores
item under separate catalogue number. Each receipt and
issue transactions are posted in the bin card giving the
up to date stock position of the item. The item
description, unit of transaction and location of items are
also maintained in the Bin card. A typical Bin card has
two parts , the top of the card and the bottom of
the card. Usually, while the top of the card shows
the receiving history of the item , the bottom of
the card shows issues of the item.
Functionally, when an item is received in the
stores, its receipt details are written on the top
of the card and thus its history of receiving gets
maintained. Similarly, when it is issued from
stores , the issue details are written on the
bottom of the card to maintain its issue history.
With increasing use of computers now a days, the
role of Bin cards is slowly and gradually
diminishing and in most of the stores the manual
handling of this vital information database has
given way to a highly sophisticated computerised
system.
Location :
Location of an item in stores is the place where it is
stored. The location of the stock of each item is
maintained so that any item can be easily traced , located
for transactions like receipt & issue.
There are two ways of maintaining item locations: Fixed
location & random locations. In case of fixed location
system the item is stored in a specific place every time
it is received. This fixed location is maintained in bin
cards.
In case of random location system, items are stored in
different locations based on the
availability of space and corresponding location reference
is given on the bin card against the corresponding stock.
Preservation of material :
In any Stores, there is a time lag between the receipt & actual use of
the material. Different materials get deteriorated to
different extent during the storage period based on the
nature of items. So, the items need to be preserved to
maintain their useful life. The action taken to maintain
the useful life of the material to avoid its deterioration
and maintaining its useful life is known as
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