Shop hardware stocking vendor

I've seen in a few different places hardware racks and bins where a vendor keeps the supply stocked. My partner and I spend too much time digging through assorted piles of crap looking for common hardware, and it's really annoying me. The cost of the part is piddling compared to the cost of our time. What are some of the folks that do this, what is it called, and can anyone offer me some pros and cons of having this done? Are there any folks in the Seattle area that do this (I know there is, just don't know who) and are there any recommendations for one or the other?

Reply to
Carl McIver
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Dan

Reply to
Dan

You might think so until you get the bill from Lawson or Winzer! Convenient, but costly, and you still may not have the nut or bolt you need.

Reply to
ATP*

Ever considered sorting out that crap????

Reply to
Clif Holland

Check with your nearest FASTENAL store. They may even supply the bins if the volume is there.

There is an outfit called MIDWEST FASTENER that does all the hardware at the local farm supply store. They do the stocking, maintain the inventory levels, etc. Their stuff is not cheap, but there is a bunch of variety.

If it's just nuts and bolts, check with the local fastener companies. Most of them have outside sales people on established routes.

Reply to
Bill Marrs

On Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:53:51 +1300, Dan scribed:

Excellent!

Maybe the old Boeing surplus has dried up out in Renton.

Cheers,

Fred

Reply to
Phred

Did I miss something? These are books on college english. After rereading my message a couple times, the reason for that has me befuddled.

Reply to
Carl McIver

Carl

Tacoma Screw advertises that it keeps bins stocked. I've got no experience with the service though. Give them a call and see what the deal is.

Jim

Reply to
Jim McGill

--One of the 'technical' terms for this are "rack jobbers"; i.e. a company with a line of products brings a rotating rack with all of their line on it, then periodically reappears to restock, so that the shopkeeper's duties are simply to sell the stuff and be done with it. Rack jobber probably tracks sales via barcode or some such.

Reply to
steamer

I think it was a smarmy comment on the sentence structure of the OP's question.

Nothing really helpful or useful.

To my eye, the OP has two problems. One is houskeeping, the other is that he does not have a well organised area for his consumables.

For the houskeeping, I'd suggest a cold hearted look at what is laying about the place, and some time spent organising it, or disposing of it.

Bolt bins are available full or empty, and common hardware is cheap in boxes of a hundred. A couple bolt bins of matched up hardware, and a couple pre printed faxable order forms and stocking issues are dealt with before coffee. A couple empty bolt bins set up with special hardware can deal with commonly used small items, other than nuts and bolts stuff.

I have dealt with consumption point style bins with min and max quantities, maintained by people within our large organisation. In some situations that can work, but it is smoother if someone with a knowledge of the usage (both normal and unusual) has a hand in, so that you don't end up running perpetually short of some items, or not have enough on hand when you need them for a big job.

I can only see a vendor managed system like this working economically, if the vendor is going to see profit through high prices, high volume, or both. $$$

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

"college english"? The title just swished right over your head, didn't it? No wonder you can't find anything, if you think what you originally posted was a model of clarity, you have a very untidy grasp of written composition.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

I didn't have any problems figuring out what he wanted. Did you?

Reply to
Dave Lyon

Really? Don't be bashfull, share your figuring.

Reply to
Dan

I didn't either (have any problem understanding the OP). If you're going to be serious about grammar policing, you're going to be busy. There are some post'ers here who are nearly incoherent. So bad that I generally just skip their posts rather than try to figure out what they're saying. Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

"Trevor Jones" wrote in message news:krp4h.61005$H7.48732@edtnps82...

I can be boring and not get my point across. Ar Ah cain tawlk lak Ah got me a pubik schewl edukashun. Your pick.

I'll drop the topic there; no need to stir the pot any further.

I took this job this summer, and in the process I inherited a sort of a warehouse area with stuff in tub skids and on pallets, and no suitable shelving. The few cabinets were full of stuff that last got sorted out in

1993, most of which has no use to our current work. I'm about halfway through it all, sending out a ton of stuff to the trash pile and staging even more to head out to our surplus site after everyone else gets to pick through it. Making good progress, but I can only do so much if I don't have any shelving to sort keepable stuff onto.

Exactly what I'm doing, all the while keeping several other projects going at the same time. My boss is sitting on a list of storage racks and such that I want, getting ready to submit a request for money to get this and pay for consolidating another lab into ours. Those wheels are turning slow, but I want to be able to look over the numbers and see if it will all fit, or I just need to sit down and try to figure out how to set up something myself.

I work for a really f'ing big company, but our organization is a hole in the wall in a dark corner, for the most part. Most folks here have been here a long time, and it wasn't until I asked to have the briars growing over the fence cleared did it finally dawn on them that the whole damn place wasn't far from overgrown. So I have to say that I've been able to nudge into motion some good things, but I don't know how much I can push. Then again, shortly after I hired in I asked a few questions and the response to every one was: "Whatever you think you have to do." The hard thing is that we use lots and lots of different things in R&D. Hardware in sizes from 4-40 to 1" and up (in steel, brass, nylon, and stainless, and now, metric!) with wires in our lab ranging in size from 36 ga to what they call locomotive cable, which I haven't had the pleasure of working with yet, and all kinds of signal cabling in between. Every day it's something different, and I hate waiting for several days for someone with the checkbook to get the stuff I need, then waiting for even longer for it to arrive. My boss mentioned getting my partner and I that card, but I won't believe it until I see it, as he's a really, really busy guy. At any rate, the fellow I replaced and the other tech with me didn't seem to think too much about using the right hardware (or tools made for the job!) so I'm gently trying to change the culture. Being the new guy, there's only so hard I can push and prod.

If I were to start with the basics that every small hardware store has, that would be a great start for me!

I got a call into Bowman, from Barnes Distributors, and hopefully their rep can help me put a proposal together. Wish me luck.

Reply to
Carl McIver

Carl McIver wrote in article ...

That's what you will believe until you experience the "Premier Push" - the practice of pushing the nuts/bolts to the back of the bin in order to make it look as though you need another box of 100.

Just imagine a truck shop with more than 500 1/4-20 nuts in the bins....

Then, there is the "appreciation programs" in which your shop foreman receives points for every one of YOUR dollars he spends with the company.

Guess who pays for THAT?

Been there....Done that.

Now, once a month, I inventory my hardware and put in an order locally - buying no more and no less than *I* believe I'll need - not what the vendor believes he needs to sell me.

Also, dealing locally, I can easily head down to the store and pick up anything I might have run out of - long before the order-writing buffoon from Premier, Lawson, Kent, Bowman, etc. shows up again.

Vendor managed inventory may work in some applications, but most vendors do not have a clue as to what is scheduled in your shop, or what your needs are - other than how many nuts and bolts you currently have in your bins.....period.

Reply to
*

WoW!

Much clearer picture!

I feel for you, too!

Sounds to me like you need a couple guys on there full time just on the logistics side of things. I have been party to a couple rationalizations of parts and supplies when shops have merged. Theres a plain shitpile of work in something like that, and that work pales in comparison to starting fron chaos.

Vidmar bins! I like open storage, but none of it can store the volume and variety of parts that you can store in a couple vidmars, if you have to deal with small stuff a lot.

Of course organising and having such a treasure trove is only half the battle. the other half is keeping it organised in use, so that it does not turn into chaos-inna-box!

Good luck! Sincerely!

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

Amen to that.

If I had access to a supplier that had prices AND fast service on par with McMaster Carr, I would lack for few things.

Sadly, the best I can do here is Acklands Grainger, who will get what I need, fast, but charge up the hoop. (northeast Alberta, if it matters)

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

I talked to the rep today a bit and asked for price comparisons relative to store bought stuff, and she said that an item that I would pay a dollar for at a store (I sort of assume overprices box stores in packaged quantities of two or so) would cost twenty five cents, which wasn't what I was expecting. There's the cost of the service, and setup fees, of course, but as she manages several other stations in my company (even has a company vendor badge) I can't see them trying anything silly, as there are number crunchers who put the wringers on selecting vendors for more active stations. I'll get together with her next week and report back what I know. She did mention that they had an employee deal that employees could purchase directly from them at regular prices, so that intrigued me as well.

Reply to
Carl McIver

Hmmm. That's a quarter retail. I buy from my local wholesaler at 80% off retail list for box quantities, so it's both believable and there's room for a good profit there.

PDW

Reply to
Peter

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