Stock tells you something is there. It should also tell you where.

Quantity and individual unit are two different things

Stock management distinguishes between quantity articles and individually kept devices. Nobody counts screws one by one, a generator yes.

Ten identical machines are commercially the same article and operationally ten different objects. One is new, one has been out to customers twenty times, one is in repair, one is due for inspection next week, one has just been transferred.

Individually kept articles therefore carry their serial number, and individual tracking runs by serial number or barcode. A scan code can be taught once, after which the scanner finds the unit without searching.

For individually kept devices the bin location applies per unit, for quantity articles the quantity per location.

Place, movement and several warehouses

Several warehouses can be kept, and within a warehouse the article sits on a bin location with its own number. That way it is known not only that something exists but where it should be.

Stock arises from receipts, issues and transfers. Material moves between locations, devices sit on a job for a while, others stand at a customer or are on the way back. A stock figure therefore becomes a history of movement.

Goods receipt records what was actually delivered. For quantity articles the available stock rises, and for serialised devices it is additionally recorded which unit arrived.

Picking runs line by line and is confirmable by barcode. Whatever leaves the warehouse hangs on the job, and the return records what came back.

Scanning, counting, finding again

The scan brings the digital record together with the reality on the rack. Recording happens where it happens, not afterwards at a desk from memory.

RFID can speed the process up further. Where a scanner deliberately records single objects, it can, depending on the technology used, identify larger quantities of tagged objects more quickly, for instance at issue, return or stocktake.

The stocktake runs with count sheets and barcode capture against the target stock. Discrepancies become visible, wrongly stored articles show up, and the value of the warehouse can be evaluated as at the reporting date.

In the end the warehouse answers not only how much is there. It answers where it lies, which unit it is and what last happened to it.