How does ProAlert stop two technicians committing the same part?

Adding a part to a work order reserves that quantity immediately. Available quantity is on-hand minus reserved, so the next person checking stock sees what is genuinely free rather than what is physically on the shelf.

Can we run more than one storeroom?

Yes. Any node of the location hierarchy can be marked as holding stock, and bins sit beneath it as child nodes. A part stocked in the main storeroom and a satellite crib shows separate balances, and a transfer between them writes a transaction carrying both locations plus the quantity before and after.

Can an operator request parts from the floor?

Yes. The operator sees materials filtered to what the current route step actually uses rather than the whole bill of materials, submits a request against the running job, and a material handler claims it. The operator then sees who is bringing it and an estimated time of arrival.

Is there an audit trail on inventory?

Every movement writes a transaction: receipts, issues to work orders, adjustments, transfers, returns and cycle counts. Each one records the location it happened at and the quantity before and after, and is queryable by part, location, date range and transaction type.

Parts Inventory and Materials Management for Maintenance

The bottom line: In most plants the parts list lives in a spreadsheet or an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that technicians rarely open. A technician finds the shelf empty, sends a verbal request to purchasing, and purchasing learns about the shortage when somebody tells them. Here the shortage is a record before it is a conversation.

Parts Inventory

ProAlert maintains a full parts master with categories, stock locations, bin assignments and unit of measure. Each part record carries the numbers that decide whether work can start:

Field	Why it matters
On-hand quantity	What is physically at that location
Reserved quantity	Already committed to open work orders
Available quantity	On-hand minus reserved... the number that actually answers "can I start this job"
Reorder point and quantity	Drives low-stock exception reporting and purchase order triggers
Location and bin	Where to walk to, not just whether the plant owns one

When a part is issued to a work order the on-hand quantity drops and the transaction is written automatically, so the next person to check sees the current picture rather than last night's report.

Stock Locations and Bins

A Storeroom Is a Node, Not a Separate Register

Any node of the location hierarchy can be marked as holding stock. That means a main storeroom, a satellite crib and a line-side cage are the same kind of object at different depths, and each carries its own balances. There is no parallel list of storerooms to keep in step with the plant layout.

Bins Are Children of the Location

A bin is a child node beneath its stock location, so a location's stock is the sum of everything at or under it. Ask for the storeroom balance and you get the whole crib; ask for the bin and you get the shelf.

Transfers Are Transactions

Moving stock between locations or between bins writes a TRANSFER carrying both location identifiers. Nothing moves without a record of where it came from and where it went.

Receipts Land Somewhere Deliberate

An incoming receipt resolves to a real location through a defined order of preference: the receiver's choice, the part's default location, the line, the order header, then the site default. One delivery can be split across destinations, writing one receipt per destination. Nothing is silently dropped into an unassigned bucket.

Parts on Work Orders and PM Schedules

Technicians add parts to a work order before or during execution. Each line captures part number and description, quantity requested and used, unit and total cost, and return tracking for unused parts going back to stock. On multi-asset work orders, parts are tracked at the individual asset level so repair cost lands against the right asset for lifecycle costing.

Adding a part reserves it. Available quantity drops immediately, which is what stops a second technician unknowingly committing the same stock to a different job.

Each preventive maintenance schedule can carry its own parts list. When the PM generates a work order the required parts appear on it automatically, and purchasing sees the requirement weeks ahead through the planning board rather than on the morning the PM was due to run.

Requesting Materials From the Floor

An operator who needs material raises a request against the job that is actually running, from the work centre screen or a phone. Four things make it usable rather than another form:

Filtered to the Route Step

The operator sees materials relevant to the current route step rather than the entire bill of materials for the product. The full bill is available deliberately, not by default, which keeps a long list from becoming a scrolling exercise on a touchscreen.

Tied to the Running Job

The request carries the product and the route step it was raised against, so afterwards it is possible to ask which stage of which product generates the material calls, rather than only how many there were.

A Handler Claims It

Material handlers see pending requests and claim one. A claimed request is owned, so two handlers do not both set off for the same parts... the same first-responder logic ProAlert uses for downtime calls.

The Operator Sees an ETA

The claim carries an estimated time of arrival back to the operator, and the request captures where on the floor it was raised. The answer to "is anyone coming" is on the screen instead of being a second phone call.

Both the operator and the handler can attach notes, and the handler marks the request delivered to close it. Materials requesting is a separately licensed part of the platform, so a plant that only wants storeroom inventory is not obliged to roll it out to the floor.

Transaction History and Audit Trail

Every movement of a part writes an auditable record: receipts, issues to work orders, adjustments, transfers, returns and cycle counts. Each transaction carries the location it happened at and the quantity before and after it, which is what makes a balance reconstructable rather than merely current.

The history is queryable by part, location, date range and transaction type, and it is the data behind the consumption trends that feed forecasting. That supports inventory reconciliation, quality audits and cost accounting without a separate ERP query.

The Three Delays This Removes

Delay	How ProAlert addresses it
Technician waits because the part is not in stock	Reorder points and forecasting surface the shortage before the work order is created
PM deferred because parts were not staged	The PM parts list is visible to purchasing weeks in advance
Wrong part ordered after a miscommunication	Part number, description and quantity flow from the PM or work order straight onto the purchase order

Parts available when work orders are generated means maintenance happens on schedule. Maintenance on schedule keeps equipment running, and that lands back on OEE Availability, which is where the delay was costing you in the first place.

See available stock, not just on-hand stock.

Book a 30-minute demo... we'll reserve a part against a work order and watch the floor's available quantity move in the same second.

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