Material Control From Stockroom to Machine

Every movement of material from the warehouse/stockroom to the production floor should be authorised, documented, and system-recorded — not casual or informal. "Walk up and grab it" cultures are a major source of inventory inaccuracy.

The Two Main Approaches

1. Push (Kitting) The warehouse prepares and delivers materials to the floor proactively based on a production order.

• Works well for scheduled, repetitive production runs
• Warehouse picks all components per the Bill of Materials (BOM) and stages them as a "kit"
• Nothing moves until a work order is issued and approved
• Reduces production downtime since materials arrive ready to go

2. Pull (Floor Requisition) Production operators request materials as needed.

• Works better for variable or job-shop environments
• Requires a formal requisition process (see below)
• Higher risk of informal "just grabbing" if discipline isn't enforced

Many manufacturers use a hybrid — kitting for planned production, requisitions for unplanned needs or overages.

The Requisition Process (Step by Step)

1. Production supervisor or planner generates a material requisition - either automatically from the ERP when a work order is released, or manually for unplanned needs
2. Requisition is approved - by a supervisor or automatically if it matches an open work order
3. Warehouse receives and picks the order - items are scanned/barcoded during picking to confirm accuracy
4. Materials are issued against the specific work order in the inventory system; this immediately reduces on-hand stock and charges the cost to that job
5. Physical handoff with sign-off - the production receiver acknowledges receipt, creating an audit trail
6. Any unused material is returned via a formal material return transaction - not just put back on a shelf

Key Controls to Put in Place

• No work order, no issue. Materials should only be released against an active, approved work order or job number
• Quantity limits — the system should only allow issuing what the BOM calls for; overages require supervisor approval and a reason code
• Segregated staging areas — kitted or issued materials should have a dedicated floor staging location, separate from the main stockroom, to prevent confusion
• Scrap and substitution tracking — if a component is scrapped mid-production or substituted, that needs its own transaction, not an informal extra pull
• Locked stockrooms — access to raw material storage should be restricted to authorized warehouse staff only; open-access stockrooms almost always lead to shrinkage and inaccurate counts

Common Failure Points to Avoid

The Gold Standard

The best-run operations issue materials automatically via backflushing — when a work order is marked complete, the system automatically deducts the BOM quantities from inventory. This eliminates manual transactions entirely, but requires very accurate BOMs and disciplined scrap reporting to work correctly.

The right approach depends on your production environment, but the non-negotiable in all cases is: every material movement has a corresponding system transaction.