Warehouse + Fleet Inventory: One System, Two Worlds

Receiving belongs to the warehouse

POs land at the shop. Someone checks the packing slip, scans into Main Warehouse, and puts product in a labeled home. Vans should not receive vendor freight in a driveway unless you like fiction.

If a tech buys at the counter, that is still a receive — into their van — with a vendor and a cost. An untracked house account is a second warehouse.

Vans pull, they do not browse

A restock pick list is a pull. “Wander the aisle and grab vibes” is how the warehouse goes hollow and the van goes random. Pull against min stock. Put leftover specialty back on the shelf the same day.

The warehouse person is a picker, not a bartender. Give them a list.

Min stock is different in each world

Warehouse mins cover lead time. Van mins cover a day or two of work. Copy-pasting the same number into both is how you either starve the trucks or bury the shop in safety stock.

Set them separately. Review them separately. Seasonal changes hit vans first, warehouse second.

Do not make techs learn bins A-14-C

Warehouse bin codes can be precise. Van bins should be human: “electrical top left.” The software can store both. The phone should show the human one.

FleetStock is van-first. It will not pretend to be a 50,000-SKU WMS. That is a feature if you run service trucks.

Cycle count the shop on a calendar

Vans get monthly counts. The warehouse gets a weekly cycle of one aisle. Full wall-to-wall counts are how you lose a Saturday and still not trust the number.

When shop and vans use the same part number, a cycle count actually means something. When they use nicknames, you are counting poetry.

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