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A Thumb'Tack Inventory 



A siiuiiri- of ciirdboiirO, a rulvr. iinil a box of thuiiihtuckH 

 (k'atTlbes scvorul m 



• Muiiy times a day," says an oxocutive in a woodworking plant, 

 •• 1 used to have to wait for information about the number of pieces 

 of ilifferent kinds of stock on hand. Wo had no simple means of 

 gettini; the facts (|uick!y. Often the only thing to do was to send 

 somebody out to the stock room to make an actual count. We 

 eliminate all these annoyances, however, when we adopted our 

 present system of keeping track of our stock. The plan we use 

 now gives us the necessary information at a glance." 



This i>lan is in fact so simple, and at the same time has proved 

 so effective, that it seems likely to bo of interest in many concerns 

 carrying a large number of items. It is, in brief, a visible per- 

 petual inventory, and is operated by means of a wall plan board 

 on wliich amounts are indicated by means of ordinary thumb-tacks. 



A photograph of the board is shown at the top of this page. 

 The board takes care of a number of lines, and there are a suf- 

 ficient number of these boards in all to keep track of all styles and 

 sizes tliat the factory makes. The horizontal subdivisions on each 

 board are planned to keep track of the different styles; and the 

 up-and-down columns are designed to keep track of the sizes under 

 those styles. 



The charts are mounted on wall-board and each of the small 

 rectangles shown in the illustration is composed of four horizontal 

 columns. Each column, again, contains the ten digits, from 1 to 0. 

 The rectangle is arranged, therefore, on the same plan as are the 

 keyboards of many adding machines. 



The count of stock on hand is kept by placing thumb-tacks on 

 the marking squares according to the digits. For instance, if 

 ♦here are 152 four-foot painters' ladders on hand, a tack is put in 

 the 2 square of the unit column, another tack goes in the 5 square of 

 the tens column, and another in the 1 square of the hundreds 

 column. A person familiar with the plan can thus read off the set 

 of figures that represent the quantity in stock of any size of any 

 item at a single glance. 



■'In our business the demand for many of tlio products is de- 



vlnys 11 flTwtH. 



thU iiliiii to work. Tlu> 



HOW IT WORKS 

 Kach of the tiny rectangles on this board is 

 reserved for one style and size of product. 

 From left to right in each rectangle are four 

 rows of figures, running from 1 to 0. The 

 placing of the thumb-tacks on these figures 

 shows the quantity in stock 



oidedly seasonal," says the executive who uses this plan, "hir 

 we must keep the factory working all the year around. The result 

 was, formerly, that we never knew exactly how much of any one 

 item we had on hand. Frequently when advance orders began to 

 como in we placed factory orders to cover them, when, if we had 

 Known how many of the item we already had on hand, we could 

 have fdled from stock, saving time and the extra money tied up in 

 materials. 



' ' Another convenience results when n city customer calls up on 

 the telephone and wants to know in a hurry how goon we can fill 

 a rush order for such and such a piece. By looking at the ir> 

 veiitory board we can now tell him, without oven asking him i 

 hold the wire how soon we can fill the order." 



How a Board Is Kept Up-to-date 



"Wo keep tho inventory perpetual by having it checked up eviry 

 morning through the bookkeeping department. Tho bookkeeper in 

 charge recapitulates the invoices from the previous day, and moves 

 the various tacka around so that they will read to tally with the 

 stock totals. 



"Whenever the new goods sheets come in to the oIKce from the 

 factory the corresponding pegs are moved up. We can observe 

 instantly when any stock is getting low, and inasmuch as we know 

 when tho demand for that particular piece will set in again, we 

 do not need to start replenishing the stock until the last minute. 

 Thus we save considerable time, and considerable capital, by not 

 having to keep so much tied up in goods in process. 



"The operation of the tack system is simple. It is possible for 

 us to keep track of goods of which there are up to 9,999 on hand; 

 and if any piece ever went over that number we could easily make 

 the plaque register as high as 99,999. We have found that the total 

 time required for the bookkeeper to transfer the recapitulation to 

 the boards is not over half an hour on his busiest days. This is a 

 negligible amount, when you compare it with the time that we used 

 to waste formerly looking about for this kind of 

 information. 



"We also retain the invoice 'recaps' and the 

 new goods tickets, so that at the end of any 

 month we can check quantity sales against the 

 totals of the invoices themselves, and in this 

 way keep in touch with the amount of money 

 we have tied up in the form of finished articles 

 of stock. 



"The method can easily be expanded to include 

 many hundred pieces; including designs and 

 sizes, the one chart shown above takes care of 

 144 items. The actual size of each chart is only 

 18 by 24 inches. The amount of space required 

 to keep a man's entire inventory graphically 

 before his eyes at all times could easily be spared 

 from one corner of almost any office. And it is 

 practically impossible for a bookkeeper to make 

 an error in his count here if he is at all in- 

 telligent." — System. 



Cutting lumber prices in dull times may make 

 a sale but it injures the market and makes it harder 

 than ever to bring off the next sale, and it doesn 't 

 help the volume of consumption a particle. 



Every jobbing planing mill should have a dry 

 kiln equipment of its own, and use it, to prevent 

 work from showing up badly through shrinks i 

 after it is put in place. 



