When people begin to work in construction, or even just think about the process, they almost never equate proper organization and item management to the business. Maybe it’s because it is seen as a blue collar job but nevertheless one of the most important parts of any good construction site maintenance is to ensure proper inventory of all items and supplies on the work site. This in itself can mean the difference of quite a bit of money if things end up misplaced: all those pieces of wood, screws and bits can add up over time in a compound sort of way. This article intends to educate on proper construction site inventory.
The first thing you should do when beginning to organize a construction site is to take advantage of modern technology, there are apps for just about everything although even something as simple as a spreadsheet or notepad can do the trick. Ensure that every item is brought to the worksite is inventoried and marked in the spreadsheet (there are apps that allow for the scanning of barcode if a more automated system is preferred.)
Tracking Inventory
Once a list of items on the site on the site is made one should ensure that everyday someone runs through the list and accounts for what is used and what comes in (along with the purpose of the items use if it isn’t obvious.) Each spreadsheet or product list should be unique to the worksite and one should organize them in a reasonable fashion so that audits and accounting becomes much easier.
Finding The Waste
Finally the fun part comes in: with a list of the coming and goings of all the worksites it should be easy to create reports from which you can find items that are overused or overbought (or even under bought in some cases), you can find which worksites are more efficient leading you to further search what went right there and wrong in other places.
A Complete Solution To The Problem
The above paints a picture of a large amount of work and while that is an opinion depending on the business owner there is always complete inventory tracking solution’s that manage all aspects up to and including organizing worksites and jobs, using barcodes to push items into the spreads for each worksite and even having apps for managers and employees to use that help speed up the process and cutting out the need for dedicated inventory employees. Of course the system devised or chosen is entirely dependent on the person running the business and their business needs.
To finalize worksite inventory is an overlooked but extremely important aspect of any business with construction being no exception. While it can seem a bit excessive at first once one begins to see the accounting results (and less money wasted) it will be hard to ever imagine running or using a business that doesn’t use such measures and systems.
