A plant that runs hydraulic presses, injection molding machines or mobile equipment keeps a stock of the parts that fail most: hose ends, adapters, O-ring kits, filter elements, a few cylinder seal kits and couplers. Too often that stock lives in a cabinet with no labels, no minimums and no one responsible for it. When it runs out, somebody calls you in a panic.
If you manage that crib, you stop being the emergency call and start being the system. That is a much better place to sell from.
Start with bin labels and a scan
The app prints barcode bin labels for every crib and bin. Put one on each bin of #8 JIC swivels, each drawer of Buna-N O-rings and each shelf of return-line filter elements. Now anyone on the floor can scan the label with a phone camera and put the item in a cart. If you or the customer use a scanner gun on a weekly walk, those scans can be uploaded in one go.
Each bin can carry a minimum and maximum. When someone counts a bin, the app shows a suggested order: the max, minus what is on hand, minus what is already on order, rounded up to the pack. That last part matters in hydraulics, where seals come in bags and fittings in boxes of ten or twenty-five.
On-site programs for the bigger accounts
For a plant with several cribs or a vending machine, the on-site program puts everything on one page for the customer: a plant dashboard where you tap any crib, vending machine or RFID rack to see its bins, a floor plan of the plant to scale, every bin with what is on hand and where it lives. A new maintenance tech can find the spare pilot-operated check valve without wandering the building.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Bin labels on every location, printed from the app.
- Min and max set per bin, based on what the plant actually uses.
- Counts done on a phone, with the suggested reorder calculated for you.
- A floor plan with every crib and rack pinned, so you and the customer see the same picture.
- Receiving on the phone, so what arrives gets checked against what was ordered.
Counts, receiving and dedicated stock
On your side of the dock, counts and receiving work on a phone too. Cycle counts and receipts are sent to your system to post, so the warehouse is not keying them in from paper.
Hydraulics has a particular trap: the custom part. A plant asks you to stock a special cylinder, a pump for a machine nobody else runs, or hose built to a length only they use. Two years later they replace the machine and you own the parts. Dedicated custom inventory agreements fix that. The customer signs for items stocked just for them, gets notices at six months and then at 90, 60 and 30 days, and anything left is invoiced at twelve months. You can say yes to the special stock without carrying the risk alone.
For customers who need paperwork, certs and documents sit on the lot they belong to, and customers can download their own. That is useful for the plant that has to show hose pressure ratings or material certs to an auditor.
A managed crib is the hardest kind of account for a competitor to take. Once your labels are on the bins and your counts drive the reorders, switching means re-doing all of it. Start with one plant that keeps calling you for the same O-rings.
Want to walk through it with your own accounts? Book a demo.