A Nightly Plumbing Van Restock Workflow That Takes 30 Minutes

The list comes from min stock, not from vibes

If the tech writes a shopping list on a paper bag, you will buy what they remember and miss what they used. Min stock on the van should generate the pick list.

After two weeks of scans, those mins are almost honest. Until then, overshoot slightly on the daily layer and tighten later.

Pick in van-bin order

Warehouse shelves should roughly mirror van zones or the picker will walk miles. Pick all of Truck 4, then Truck 5. Do not pick all ball valves for every truck and sort later on the tailgate. That is how counts drift.

Scan the transfer onto the van as you load, not after you forgot which tote was which.

Thirty minutes is a design constraint

If restock takes two hours, the van has too many SKUs or the warehouse is a pile. Cut the museum parts. Label the warehouse. The time budget forces the right inventory design.

One person can restock a well-labeled residential van in half an hour. If they cannot, believe the clock, not the excuse.

Friday is cores and leftovers

Unused job extras and cores leave the van Friday. Credits post. Vans start Monday clean. Shops that skip Friday grow a second, unofficial warehouse in every side box.

Put Friday on the calendar like payroll. It is payroll for parts.

The night report is one screen

Which vans are still below min. Which transfers happened. Which techs did not scan today. That is the only report the closer needs. If they need a pivot table, the process is too clever.

FleetStock reorders and transfers are that screen. Use them. Do not rebuild them in Excel “just to be sure” — that is how you get two truths again.

FAQ