Stock control

One limitation of epoxide moulding compositions is their short shelf life (typically 1-3 months), which necessitates strict stock control. The compounds may be compression, transfer or injection moulded, although compression moulding is preferred for long-fibre grades. 

Each time the storage controller retrieves an item for issue, there is an opportunity to check the condition of stock and this requirement should be written into the stock control procedures. However, some items may have a slow turnover in some storage areas, particularly maintenance storage areas where spares are held pending use. There is also a need to check periodically the overall condition of the stock for damage to the fabric... 

Stock control must present a clear picture of the contents and location at any time, to ensure correct rotation of stocks. 

The bigger the farm shop, the more staff are needed to deal with the customers, and the more stock control, insurance and theft protection become essential. It may become a big enterprise which would then require sophisticated organisation. Is this what you want, and is this what you are good at If not, be careful. 

For example, a library management system deals with loans, reservations, and stock control. A third-party component is bought to deal with membership. This is a conventionally written component (probably built atop a standard database) with an API that allows members to be added, looked up, updated, and deleted. 

Computers were first used in laboratories to calculate results and generate reports, often from an individual instrument. As automated analysers were developed, so the level of computerization increased and computers now play a major role in the modem laboratory. They are associated with both the analytical and organizational aspects and the term Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is often used to describe this overall function. Such systems are available that link the various operations associated with the production of a validated test result, from the receipt of the sample to the electronic transmission of the report to the initiator of the request, who may be at a site removed from the laboratory. Other uses include stock control, human resource management and budgets. 

To favour the penetration of thermoplastics in the automotive industry, several concepts are being developed to ease assembly, stock control and purchasing. The passenger compartment is a good example of two of these concepts ... 

It allows more efficient distribution and stock control of medication. 

All major chemical companies, and most teaching establishments, now have a computerised stock-control system which enables information about on-site availability and cost of chemicals to be rapidly obtained. Many companies are now linked to a central database (e.g. Chemquest , Pergabase Inc.), which provides information (via text or graphics) on the world-wide commercial availability (from over fifty chemical catalogues) and on relative costs, etc., of fine chemicals. The hazards in use and disposal of all chemicals (see Section 2.3) may be readily checked from the catalogues of major chemical suppliers and other important sources. 

Stock control in many industries, particularly food retailing, is computerized and the printed bar code forms an essential element in the system. 

Today, just in time stock control favours a totally different approach, that of kiln-drying followed by pressure impregnation to obviate the long diffusion holding period. 

Stock rotation and control is best maintained by the use of a proprietary stock control system. Care must be taken to select a system that can manage the rigid requirements for batch number control and expiry dating which are essential for handling pharmaceutical products. Many commercial systems lack these features. In case of doubt advice should be sought from competent experienced personnel. 

The site http //www.chemexper.com also allows access to ExpereacE WEB, a laboratory management program that helps to keep stock control, order products, add reactions (electronic laboratory journal), export all the information to... 

C. Conservation of limited supplies requires efficient stock control procedures. Modem automatic data processing systems can achieve the necessary degree of control when properly used. However, when automatic data processing equipment is employed, consideration must be given to the establishment of protected sites, alternate facilities, and hardening to reduce vulnerability. Only a limited number of computer facilities will be available, and their protection is essential. Their practicability in theaters of operation has not been demonstrated. 

The tendency to have a pack component specification which is all-embracing is also changing. A simpler procedure utilises a series of information documents which lay out the procedures that a supplier has to follow for selective package forms, i.e. glass bottles, plastic bottles, laminates, labels, collapsible tubes, etc. It is then possible to have an abbreviated specification document which covers critical, major and minor defect classifications, advice on delivery and identification, and basic information on the material to be employed, etc. The specification therefore cross-references to its respective information (component manual) document and becomes considerably simplified in terms of both layout and detail. This is particularly important now that specifications are being computerised in conjunction with stock control and purchasing. 

This chapter has covered one of the oldest yet most useful of pharmaceutical packaging materials which has survived the onslaught of plastics and, being biodegradable, has considerably contributed to the store of natural materials that can be used for product protection. The chapter has also included sections on security, since papers (in particular) are frequently involved to assist security, a key example being the printing of bar codes—both for security and for efficient stock control and movement tracing. 

Upon receipt, raw materials must be placed in quarantine status and should not be used prior to acceptance. Effective quarantine can be established with suitable identifying labels or signs, and/or validated documentation systems. With increasing frequency, quarantine and documentation is widely accomplished with a computer system in lieu of a physical stock control system. This is acceptable provided that system controls are adequate to prevent use of unreleased material. 

Ten years ago, users became heavily dependent on their computers (e.g., word processing systems, applications to run stock control or order processing systems, and electronic mail to communicate more effectively with one another). A system failure caused inconvenience and in some instances departments had to revert to their paper-based systems whilst problems were resolved. 

In base stock control there are target stock levels Zj set for the store j. If a demand occurs, information about the occurrence of the demand is immediately sent to each cell. On receipt of the information, a request for a part is sent to the input store, store j — 1. If no parts are available, then requests would queue until a part becomes available. Once the part is removed from store j — 1, it is then released to the production cell for processing. On completion of processing, the completed part is put in store j. Denote by Nfi) the number of parts released to the production cell j at time t and not yet completed, the number of requests for parts waiting at the input store j - 1, and... 

Buzacott, J. A., Price, S. M., and Shanthikumar, J. G. (1992), Service Level in Multistage MRP and Base Stock Controlled Production Systems, in New Directions for Operations Research in Manufacturing, G. Fandel, T. Gulledge, and A. Jones, Eds., Springer, Berlin, pp. 445-463. 

A widely studied inventory control mecheuiism is base-stock control, which works as follows whenever the inventory position drops below R, a constant partuneter, place an order to bring the inventory position back to R. This way, every demand will trigger the placement of an order, such that the overall inventory position is tdways maintained at a constemt level, R, which is called the base-stock level. 

In the case when demand always comes in unit size, then the base-stock control is a special case of the (Q, R) model, with <2=1- Hence, the base-stock control is sometimes also referred to as the one-for-one replenishment rule. 

The base-stock control model relates to a queueing model as follows. Consider the case of demand in single units mentioned above. (Batch demand will be discussed below in Section 2.3.) Let each unit of demand correspond to a job arrived to the queue. Each unit of demand, on arrival, is supplied by the on-hand inventory or, in the stock-out situation, joins a back-order queue. Regardless, however, a replenishment/production order is triggered. 

Note that in this case, DRP effectively follows a base-stock control mechanism, with being the base-stock level (or, reorder point) for period t — L. The estimates for expected on-hand inventory and back orders (for period t) follow (17, 20) and (16, 18), respectively. 

This clearly relates to the base-stock control mechanism. In particular, K = R—any unit of demand will trigger production (or replenishment), whereas when the finished goods inventory reaches K, production will be suspended. Kanban, however, has the additional feature of blocking arrivals (of demand) when the on-hand inventory drops down to zero, that is, when aU K cards are associated with outstanding orders, which is the situation in (2) above. Hence, kanban corresponds to a finite queueing system with K being the buffer capacity—the upper limit on the total number of jobs allowed in the system. 

Now consider an inventory/distribution network, also known as a supply chain. Each node in the network represents a stocking location. Suppose a base-stock control policy is followed at each node. With the discussion above, we can adapt the standard decomposition approach in analyzing queueing networks to study this inventory network. 

To be specific, focus on a p icular node,y, in the network. Suppose nodey has a single upstream node i, which supplies any replenishment orders from j. Since base-stock control is followed throughout the network, each node is driven directly by the external demand process, which we continue to assume to be a Poisson process with rate A. 

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