Tool Inventory Management

[JoshYoung]

Hello all! I'm new to the forum and seeking some help. I just inherited a tool specialist job at a 100 year old plumbing and Hvac company. I worked in upholstery for 15 years before coming here so this is like starting at ground zero lol. I am needing to build an inventory system to track where the tools are (jobsites) and who has them. My boss suggested I get on some tool forums to try and find some helpful advice.
Currently its quite a mess that we are sorting through, this is the first time this company has had someone dedicated to managing the tools and it is also the start of them moving into paperless system management (everything before was written on legal pads).
One big challenge before me is how can we mark our tools and actually have the markings survive the beating they get out in the field? I've made part numbers for each tool (ex. Hand Held Core Drills, HH-CC-01).
i started with paint pens but after one trip to a job site the markings were gone.

thanks everyone for any help or tips you can give me!

 

[RPH]

Get into rfid chips. Then use software to track the tools in and out.

 

[zippyslug31]

I'd suggest a Google (Drive) Form and having that save into a Sheet (spread sheet). I'm using this to do my home inventory and it streamlines the process. Just open the Form and fill in the couple of fields that you setup (i.e. tool type, who has it, etc) and the results get saved into the specified spreadsheet for later data crunching.
Works well for quick entry (the Form) and later for the heavier, more detailed work of doing stuff with your information (in the Sheets doc).

 

[housewolf]

I’m afraid all I can say is… good luck. I worked at the same plumbing/mech company for 28 years eventually ending up in the general superintendent spot. During that time we had a dozen guys in the position you will be filling (they reported directly to me), some lasted a month or two, a few lasted several years. It’s a thankless job serving two masters; management and the field. Best advice I can offer is assume ownership and serve neither. Do your job to the best of your ability and don’t worry too much about the small ****. We were “tracking” about 1,500 tools on 12-20 projects so too much time spent on the small <$100 stuff can result in losing control over larger items.

During my tenure we used multiple methods of tracking from writing them in a notebook to Milwaukee’s One Key system. Something like the one key system is efficient but ultimately how successful you are will depend on you taking ownership of your responsibility to keep up with the tools/equipment.

Again, good luck.

ETA; make sure you have policies in place for lost, stolen, and wore out tools. We never made employees personally liable for losses but there are ways to indirectly make them more responsible. In any event, you don’t want to continue sending propress tools out to a guy that’s losing one every month. Most folks on here wouldn’t believe how much a medium sized mech contractor spends annually on (replacing) “small tools”. So if you are able to make a positive change on how their tools are currently being managed you could do well there. If you’re taking the position to get out of the field or because you think it’s easier than your current job you may be in for a surprise

 

[RTM]

Nothing first hand to help, but as noted above, good luck. The on site crews here were always battling, e.g. trying to keep a herd of PortaBands together and functioning. Seen lots of numbers carved into the cases, to the horror of collectors. I worked around several largish contractors at the office, and knew most of the tools they use, their color schemes etc. Disappointed how many I see show up out on the GS or Flea Market circuit these days. Not sure if stolen, or "Stolen", or legitimate worn out / depreciated tools. Some I know get kicked off site due to damaged cords etc, others not so sure why.

 

[dscheidt]

Do you have a budget to buy something? There is inventory management software for this kind of application. Not cheap, but it exists.

 

[RedneckWelder]

Some observations from seeing the absolute disaster that our toolroom is and the field and shop mechanics wrecking it and what causes it…

engrave id numbers into the tools and make sure it’s known these tools are tracked and tracked well. Require a damaged or broken tool to be turned in for a replacement to be issued. A lost tool should be noted in that individuals file so if a pattern of abuse starts you know who the problem children are.

Make sure each truck has the full suite of daily use tools and get the boss to make the driver or crew lead responsible for their own truck inventory. It’s important to make sure each truck is fully stocked so that they aren’t robbing stuff from the toolroom or other trucks just to get by on the daily, that cascades into a forever borrow system that never ends.

Keep careful track of which driver or crew lead signs out what. Historic ideas for this includes an accountability tag, a manual log, etc. make it known it’s unacceptable for a crew to turn over a tool to another crew without the “ownership” of the tool being at least transferred through your office so that you can keep an accurate inventory. It can take just a text message but you have to know so that when somebody asks “hey where’s Kit X” you call the logged user get a response of “Yeah we have it still on this job but can turn it in tonight or at lunchtime” instead of the ever classic shrug and “Idunno” when you ask the last person that you know saw it where it is.

 

[danski0224]

Hello all! I'm new to the forum and seeking some help. I just inherited a tool specialist job at a 100 year old plumbing and Hvac company. I worked in upholstery for 15 years before coming here so this is like starting at ground zero lol. I am needing to build an inventory system to track where the tools are (jobsites) and who has them. My boss suggested I get on some tool forums to try and find some helpful advice.
Currently its quite a mess that we are sorting through, this is the first time this company has had someone dedicated to managing the tools and it is also the start of them moving into paperless system management (everything before was written on legal pads).
One big challenge before me is how can we mark our tools and actually have the markings survive the beating they get out in the field? I've made part numbers for each tool (ex. Hand Held Core Drills, HH-CC-01).
i started with paint pens but after one trip to a job site the markings were gone.

thanks everyone for any help or tips you can give me!

The place I am at now has a tool guy.

Each item has a 6 digit number, it gets engraved into each tool, in multiple locations. Sometimes, the engraving gets highlighted with marker. These are most likely sequential. Probably easier than trying to figure out "names" for the different tool types.

There are several whiteboards with some of those numbers and a description of the tool. These are for some of the company vehicles with tools.

I am assuming that there is an Excel spreadsheet with similar information, but maybe not. It's certainly possible to do it all by hand, and it is possible for one person to more or less keep track of stuff/"jobsites" to a point.

Tool requests are processed by this person, so when tools are sent out to a jobsite, an inventory list is created. The inventory list is tagged (by hand) to a job, which also has a job number. A "jobsite" can have more than one job/project at one time or during the course of a year. Each one of these projects has a unique number assigned to it, and there are at least 3 possible classifications (bid job, service job, T&M job).

A barcode can be created for these "jobsites". And storage locations in the shop, if needed.

Note that this tool guy can be a tool and send out a requested reciprocating saw, without blades... and other such stunts. Don't be that guy.

Recently, a great deal of time and energy was spent trying to locate a $100.00 item with a 6 digit number that wasn't where it was "supposed" to be. The time spent far exceeded the value of the item at billable rates. This is a recurring issue at this place, stepping over stacks of $100.00 bills looking for pennies. I'll spend whatever time they are willing to pay me to look for it. This is something that you need to avoid.

I understand that tools are not "disposable", but there needs to be some sort of threshold where tracking isn't worth it.

Some tools are more than 1 item, so how will the "kit" or "breakdown" be handled? Something like a fitting press tool, then there are the accessory jaws.

The software tool tracking packages are all going to subscription based pricing, which will add up. This can be found in a quick internet search.

Using RFID tags or barcode labels will require a durable attachment system. You will need to know how the tool or item is used, so you know where NOT to put the tag. Tags will most likely need to be metal or durable plastic, and riveted on.

It will take a great deal of time to establish the inventory list. Then figure out what needs to be tracked. How detailed will the tracking be? This info will be needed to price out the tool management solutions.

You may be able to buy your own barcode tags (or RFID tags) and then develop your own software/database... or pay someone to do it, which may be better (for your company) in the long run compared to a subscription.

I know how much money is ******* in tools, but it will also take a mountain of money to properly inventory it, and another mountain of money to "go paperless". Hopefully either you or the owner has a grasp of this and has realistic expectations, or the project will fail.

Then you have to deal with stuff like ladders not being locked up, and then being "borrowed" or "forgotten" by others.

Peer to peer tool transfer without updating inventory and location.

Mixing of small tool kits like drills and batteries amongst a crew on site. Mixing of any kit that comes in a blow molded case, and the time spent putting everything back at the end of the day.

There is a real and substantial cost to deploying and retrieving tools (and cords, when the tool guy refuses to provide cordless equivalents) every day when the people in the field are billed out at $2+ a minute. The shop could buy a cordless Sawzall kit every two or 3 weeks and throw it away for what they spend reeling out and retrieving cords every day, per guy. And the earlier work stoppage/slowdown for cleanup.

 

[cvairwerks]

Ours are marked with 8 or 10 digit numbers, laser etched. Anything that is bigger than a two person lift, is tagged with an RFID tracker. hand tools are in electronically tracked cabinets and have to have the inventories checked at the start and end of each shift by the area supervisor. Cost a bunch to set up at first, but then we have probably over 250,000 individual tools.

Consumables are hand logged into the software for location and use tracking.

 

[JoshYoung]

Thank you guys this is some good advice!
Honestly it sounds familiar to some of the issues we have here. Guys trading out tools in the field making it impossible to log, dropping off tools without telling anyone, sometimes if they break a tool they don't say anything and try to put it back on the shelves themselves.
Our cage was open and working on an "honor" system. After a couple of guys got tools from the cage that were broke I decided to get a gate put up so that they cant just come and go as they want. Tool loss right now isn't a huge problem, but a lot of old timers are retiring out and we are going to be hiring you guys to replace them and I'm thinking getting ahead with RFID is a good idea.
I have been engraving a lot of hand tools. We do have the budget for barcode scanning software and given the cost of the tool investment the boss will probably be pretty reasonable when it comes to price.

Right now the system i'm envisioning is letting all the men know (around 100 guys) that if they want tools to plan what they need the day before and text or email me so i can get everything checked out and waiting for them for in the morning. No more free tool crib access. Due dates on the tool return, (I will be flexible here but i think if they know they have to have it back in 3 days the amount of chasing down tools i'm doing will diminish.) We are billing jobs on two different scales (Bid, and T&M). We also have service guys, but we let them take their own tools and do their own billing because they are on call and it just makes more sense to trust them.

Right now its really hard to track what we actually have, i've been here about 9 weeks and many tools have never been back to the shop since I started. We have around 100 active jobsites at a time. i'm still trying to wrap my head around how I can find out what tools we have out in the field without having to wait months for them to come back.

 

[Renegade1LI]

We looked into various systems years ago, ended up doing it by crew. Our work keeps us o⁷n jobs for years at a time so we try to have the foreman stay on top of it. To hire a tool guy around here would be 75k - 100K plus benefits and insurance. So we don't sweat losing a few hand tools and we haven't lost any large pieces of equipment. The job super keeps an eye on the foreman daily plus most sites we're on are closed to the public. When a crew moves to the next job they take their tools with them. So each crew is equipped and if they need replacements or something new it goes to the super. I'd say we spend around 25k per year on small tool replacement so it's manageable.

 

[ZRX61]

They put an upholsterer in charge of tools for 100 plumbers & HVAC guys?

 

[Renegade1LI]

They put an upholsterer in charge of tools for 100 plumbers & HVAC guys?

They probably thought he could keep tack of everything.

 

[ZRX61]

They probably thought he could keep tack of everything.

Maybe he can help the plumbers when dealing with hard stools...

 

[joel_400]

Here's an idea...I've been a mechanic for 20 plus years, we are responsible for providing 90+% of our own tools. Explain to your company how you can save them money by going to that setup. Maybe figure out how you can pitch a tool allowance to the employees to make it look good for both sides.
Joel

 

[housewolf]

Here's an idea...I've been a mechanic for 20 plus years, we are responsible for providing 90+% of our own tools. Explain to your company how you can save them money by going to that setup. Maybe figure out how you can pitch a tool allowance to the employees to make it look good for both sides.
Joel

That is a solution. Problem is, many of these tools are pretty expensive and historically plumbers have been supplied power tools. A propress tool for up to 2” is ~$4K, a guy running cast iron on a large project may not need it for several months. It takes a very long time for change to happen when you have over ~50 employees in the field.

At one time, the company I worked for was supplying jobs with acetylene turbo torches and tips. It seemed every time a job started we were buying hundreds of $$ worth of torches & tips. They were expensive and disappeared by the end of a job. When I took over as G Supt I told everyone if they had a torch, keep it, it’s yours. We bought a few to give to long term employees that may not have had one in their possession at the time but everyone else was required to buy and keep up with their own. Of course we had to change the employee handbook/ required tool list but we never bought another torch. Moot point, now practically everything is press.

Part of the issue, IMO, is most of these large to medium sized companies are run by businessmen now. Years ago they were more often than not run by the guy that started the company, probably a plumber. A certain amount of attrition was acceptable and in fact expected. Every large job estimate that I’ve seen has a line item(s) for small tools & consumables. Years ago this stayed in the job budget. Any serviceable tools you had left over at the end of a large project were considered icing on the cake. When that supervisor or crew went to the next project, he took his leftover tools and replenished with his new budget. If he didn’t use all of his budget a percentage of those $$ were given to him in incentives. Now most companies sweep these dollars from the jobs and move into a company wide tool budget. The businessmen running these companies are hoping to make profit off of the tool budgets too. There’s nothing wrong with that but when they removed the $$ from the job budget it also removes accountability from the people using the tools. There is no longer a tangible incentive for the crews to take care of the tools.

 

[danski0224]

Here's an idea...I've been a mechanic for 20 plus years, we are responsible for providing 90+% of our own tools. Explain to your company how you can save them money by going to that setup. Maybe figure out how you can pitch a tool allowance to the employees to make it look good for both sides.
Joel

Good luck with that.

You'll need an F450 with a KUV body to supply 90% of plumbing tools and cart them around. At that point, I'd be opening up my own shop.

We're not talking about a pair of Channel Locks, a level and a pencil.

 

[danski0224]

Right now its really hard to track what we actually have, i've been here about 9 weeks and many tools have never been back to the shop since I started. We have around 100 active jobsites at a time. i'm still trying to wrap my head around how I can find out what tools we have out in the field without having to wait months for them to come back.

100 employees, 100 jobs? Gotta be at least 50 trucks.

Dude, you have at least 150 business days of inventory ahead of you, by yourself.

You and the owner need to figure out what path is being taken to track the inventory, and then more people need to be hired to get the baseline done.

You'll get nowhere waiting for stuff to come into the shop for inventory and tagging.

Probably need to get a few trucks done and set up, then swap people out and back after doing their truck.

 

[JoshYoung]

They put an upholsterer in charge of tools for 100 plumbers & HVAC guys?

I was a lead for the last 10 years at my old job. Excel experience, inventory experience, management skills, good work ethic, good recommendation from my plant manager, good referral from a manager that works here. Show up here half an hour early every day and try to earn everyone's respect as I go.
Tbh though I was surprised they chose me for this job, I was applying for a scrapper job and planning to work my way up.

 

[joel_400]

Good luck with that.

You'll need an F450 with a KUV body to supply 90% of plumbing tools and cart them around. At that point, I'd be opening up my own shop.

We're not talking about a pair of Channel Locks, a level and a pencil.

I understand that. Where I work the company provides a service truck, buy not the tools you need to do YOUR job. As a lifelong mechanic I've always provided most of my own tools do do my job. That's just part of life. In return I get to keep them for as long as I can still use them. It costs the employers less money and the employees will take better care of the tools and make sure they don't come up "missing". I guess in my line of work it's always been expected so I'm used to it.
Joel

 

[JoshYoung]

Here's an idea...I've been a mechanic for 20 plus years, we are responsible for providing 90+% of our own tools. Explain to your company how you can save them money by going to that setup. Maybe figure out how you can pitch a tool allowance to the employees to make it look good for both sides.
Joel

We have some men with personal tools. The boss doesn't want it to run that way, he would rather have as much of it be company owned.

 

[JoshYoung]

100 employees, 100 jobs? Gotta be at least 50 trucks.

Dude, you have at least 150 business days of inventory ahead of you, by yourself.

You and the owner need to figure out what path is being taken to track the inventory, and then more people need to be hired to get the baseline done.

You'll get nowhere waiting for stuff to come into the shop for inventory and tagging.

Probably need to get a few trucks done and set up, then swap people out and back after doing their truck.

Very solid guess, we have 65 trucks.
I know the reality is actually doing an inventory of the trucks wouldn't be so hard, its just having accessibility to their truck long enough to get in and get everything we need recorded.

The plan right now is to just to pick a truck and while they are in their monthly meeting go through the whole truck and take pictures of everything, and sort it all back out and record it after they leave.

 

[danski0224]

If enough of the trucks are set up the same, inventory one or two completely, then put the guy into that truck, inventory his, put him back into his truck.

Straighten "inventoried truck", repeat.

 

[housewolf]

Very solid guess, we have 65 trucks.
I know the reality is actually doing an inventory of the trucks wouldn't be so hard, its just having accessibility to their truck long enough to get in and get everything we need recorded.

The plan right now is to just to pick a truck and while they are in their monthly meeting go through the whole truck and take pictures of everything, and sort it all back out and record it after they leave.

Sounds like small (lease space?) jobs. To put things in perspective, when we were at ~ 100 people we had maybe 20 active jobs with about 95% of our resources on 6-8 of them with maybe 1/2 dozen company trucks in play. Tool management was more than a handful at that. Smaller jobs are unique in the respect that things change much quicker (and more often) and there’s far less time to react to the change

You are about to be steppin‘ & fetchin’

 

[ecotec]

They put an upholsterer in charge of tools for 100 plumbers & HVAC guys?

His system is tufter than you would think.