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.

Can ProAlert trace a material lot to the parts made from it?

Yes. A material lot register holds a running balance and a transaction ledger. The handler records which lot satisfied each lot-tracked staging line at pick, delivery to the line stamps who, when and which asset, and the operator declares the lot loaded at the machine. A production lot then carries a genealogy listing every material lot that fed it. From there you can trace a material lot forward to every production lot it reached, or a production lot back to its inputs, and print a lot label as PDF or ZPL. A bump policy per asset and product decides when a new production lot starts: on material change, production day, shift change or die change.

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.

The ProAlert parts master listing 35 active parts with part number, name, category, type, on-hand quantity with unit of measure, reorder point, unit cost and status. Four parts carry an amber Reorder badge because their on-hand quantity has fallen below their reorder point, and the Reorder Needed tile at the top of the screen reads 4. Several part numbers carry a red CS marker for critical spare. — **The whole parts master, and the four rows that need acting on.** Thirty-five parts, each with its category, what is on hand in its own unit of measure, the reorder point it is judged against and its unit cost. Four have fallen below that point and are flagged amber; the count at the top of the screen is the same four, and so is the low-stock report the purchasing module works from. Critical spares carry the red CS marker, because the question "is this the part that stops the line" is not the same question as "how many are left". This is the list the reorder point column in the table above actually drives.

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.

ProAlert location hierarchy showing an Administration Building, Main Manufacturing Building and Warehouse expanded into departments and bins alongside a card grid of the top level nodes, each card carrying its location code, type, child count and where stock is held its item count and value — **Buildings, departments, storerooms and bins are one tree, not four lists.** The Main MRO Storeroom holds 35 items worth $15,200 and expands into individually addressable bins from A-0-2 downward. A storeroom is not a separate kind of record here, it is simply a node in this tree that holds stock, which is why the Maintenance Shop can hold 16 items and a Mobile Maintenance Cart can hold stock while being a cart. Asking what is in a building means asking for a node and everything beneath it.

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, but Not Limited to It

The operator sees materials relevant to the current route step rather than the entire bill of materials for the product, which keeps a long list from becoming a scrolling exercise on a touchscreen. The full bill is still reachable, and any item on it can be requested with a stated quantity, so the one-off that the route step does not list is a request rather than a phone call.

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.

Staging: Turning the Plan Into Material at the Rack

Finalizing a shift releases its materials list, so the demand a schedule implies becomes staging work rather than a conversation at shift change. Staging is a durable, numbered record, not a transient list.

A Staging Record, Not a To-Do

Each staging record carries a number and can be claimed, released, completed or cancelled. It survives a schedule change: unlocking and re-finalizing a shift revives the existing record rather than leaving a duplicate behind it.

Staging Locations

The racks and floor spots material is staged to are administered as real locations, so "where is it" has an answer that does not depend on who staged it.

A Sheet the Handler Can Carry

A branded staging sheet opens as a PDF named by its staging number, for the handler who would rather have paper at the rack than a tablet. An interactive workflow diagram, filtered by date and asset, shows where each staging record is in the flow.

The Server Decides What Is Legal

The buttons on the handler's tablet enable from server-computed permissions... can claim, can release, can complete, can deliver... so the app and the server cannot disagree about what is allowed next. The Materials tab carries a live count of outstanding requests.

The ProAlert staging record STG-000105, marked Delivered, for 3,050 oak bases on FIN-001. The items card lists two lines, oak stock from location W-02 and wood sealant from W-07, each showing requested against staged quantity and a standard pack size, with a black badge beneath naming the lot the handler pulled and its quantity, above an empty lot code field for adding another. The details card gives the product, target quantity, asset, expected date, who claimed and who completed the record with timestamps, the staging location, and a note explaining that sealant was drawn short because a part drum was carried over. Below, a production schedule card lists one active run and one closed run carrying the reason it was closed. — **A staging record survives the schedule changing under it.** This one was claimed and completed by the same handler half an hour apart, and it still carries both of the runs it has been attached to: the active one, and the one that was closed when the shift was unlocked and finalized again with a revised sequence. That is the difference between a numbered record and a printed pick list. Each line captures the lot that actually satisfied it at the moment of picking, which is the link everything downstream depends on, and both lines are staged in whole standard packs rather than in the exact quantity the run asked for.

Lot Traceability, End to End

Traceability fails at the handoffs. ProAlert records each one as it happens, on the same database as the production record it has to line up with, so genealogy is a query rather than a reconstruction.

Step	What is recorded
The lot exists	A material lot register with a running balance and a transaction ledger behind it. Negative balances are findable in their own list, with a banner saying why one can exist.
The lot is picked	The handler records which lot satisfied each lot-tracked staging line, at the moment of picking rather than afterwards.
The lot is delivered	Marking staged material delivered stamps who, when, and to which asset.
The lot is loaded	The operator declares the lot loaded at the machine and the machine knows what is in it. Unloading closes the window. A lot that never came through staging can be named manually and is flagged as such.
The part is made	A production lot whose genealogy lists every material lot that fed it. A lot carries forward unless its material was actually replaced, and a new lot inherits what is in the machine, so genealogy stays true across a bump.
When to start a new lot	A bump policy per asset and product: on material change, on production day, on shift change, or on die change. The plant states the rule once rather than deciding it per shift.
Answering the question	Trace a material lot forward to every production lot it reached, or a production lot back to its inputs. Print a lot label as PDF or as ZPL (Zebra Programming Language) straight to a label printer.

Materials, including staging and lot traceability, is a separately licensed module, and it is gated on one licence code across the web application and the tablet.

The ProAlert material lot record for lot RED-24188 of ABS Resin - Red, marked Available, showing supplier lot PLX/ABS-R/24188, 4000 received against 1160.5 on hand, manufacture and expiry dates, who first recorded it and when, a free-text note, and an Adjust Balance panel that takes a quantity and a reason. Beside it the ledger lists thirteen movements from the first sighting off the supplier label through three picks, three deliveries and two loads to four consumptions, each row carrying its quantity, the balance it left behind, a plain sentence saying what happened, and the person and role who recorded it. — **The balance is not a number somebody types, it is the end of a list.** Thirteen movements on one lot of red resin: first sighting off the supplier label at 4,000, picks against three staging records, deliveries to a named machine, loads at the press, and four consumptions derived as each production lot closed. Every row names who did it and what the balance stood at afterwards, so 1,160.50 on hand is reconstructable rather than asserted. The Adjust Balance panel is there for what a ledger cannot cover, and it records the reason alongside the correction rather than quietly moving the figure.

The ProAlert lot bump rules screen, showing a site default row alongside six overrides scoped to an asset, to a product, and to an asset and product together, each with a tick or a dash against material lot change, production day, shift change and die change, plus an active column and edit and delete actions. A notice above the table states that a product change always opens a new production lot and is not configurable, and that rules resolve most specific first. — **When a new lot starts is a rule, not a judgement call made at shift change.** Four triggers can open a production lot: the material lot changed, the production day rolled over, the shift changed, or the die changed. The site default is stated once and then overridden only where a machine or a product genuinely differs, and the rules resolve most specific first: the asset making that product, then the product on any asset, then the asset making anything, then the site. A product change is deliberately absent from the grid because it is never optional. The override on SPR-001 is switched off rather than deleted, which is how a rule is retired without losing the record of what it used to do.

The ProAlert where used result for material lot RED-24188 of ABS Resin - Red. A red panel reads 22,710.00 finished units implicated across five production lots and warns that at least one of those lots is still open, so the total can still grow. Beside it a material lot card gives the material, supplier lot, status, quantity on hand, expiry and first sighting. Below, a table lists the five production lots with the press each ran on, the product, the production day, the quantity made, the window the lot was on the machine and the quantity consumed, four of the five marked derived and one reading not yet derived. — **The recall question, answered in one screen.** One suspect lot of red resin, and the platform names every finished unit it could have reached: 22,710 pieces across five production lots on two presses, each with the window the material was actually on that machine. A material lot that spans a lot change is counted in both production lots on purpose, because over-inclusive is the safe direction on a recall, and the screen says so rather than leaving you to work out why the arithmetic looks generous. One of the five lots is still running, so the figure is flagged as able to grow instead of being presented as final. The consumed quantities are worked out from the bill of materials and the count produced, and every one of them is labelled derived rather than dressed up as a measurement.

The ProAlert what is in it view for production lot PL-000142, 3,050 oak bases made on FIN-001 on 12 September between 10:00 and 18:00, with a chain strip stepping to the lot before it and the lot after it. Below, a table of the two material lots that fed it, an oak stock lot and a wood sealant lot, each with its supplier lot, the first and last time it was used, the quantity consumed marked derived, the staging record it came off, the handler who picked it and how the lot was captured. — **And the same question in reverse.** Pick a finished lot and the platform lists what went into it: an oak stock lot and a wood sealant lot, each with the supplier's own lot number, the window it was in use, the staging record it was picked against and the handler who picked it. The chain strip at the top steps to the lot before and the lot after on the same machine, because the answer to a customer complaint is often in the lot either side of the one on the label. None of this was reconstructed afterwards: each link was written at the moment a handler picked, delivered or loaded the material, on the same database as the production record it has to line up with.

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.

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