Guides
Print shop stock control checks by cadence: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly
A print shop stock control checklist by cadence: what to check at the end of each day, week, month and quarter, and who owns each cadence in the stock room.
What to take away
- Stock control fails on rhythm, not on knowledge. Owners know what to check; what is missing is a fixed time to check it.
- The daily items exist to stop a press waiting tomorrow. The monthly items exist to find out where the paper actually went.
- Reconcile parent sheets issued against product shipped, per job. Every other number in the stock room depends on that one.
- Consumables are cheap to hold and expensive to run out of. They belong on the daily list, not the quarterly one.
- Give each cadence a named owner. A list nobody owns is a list nobody works.
End of day
Five minutes, done by whoever closed the floor.
End-of-day stock checks
- Unrecorded stock issued today
- Items past reorder point ordered
- Opened consumables logged
- Damaged stock pulled and labeled
- Tomorrow's jobs checked against physical stock
- Any stock issued today that was not recorded against a job ticket
- Any item that crossed its reorder point today, ordered before the supplier cut-off
- Consumables that were opened today logged: ink, plates, chemistry, blankets, packing
- Damaged or contaminated stock pulled aside and labeled rather than left in the lift
- Tomorrow's scheduled jobs checked against stock physically present, not against the system
The last item is the one that pays for the other four. A job that reaches the press without its paper costs a makeready and a promise.
End of week
Thirty minutes, done by the person who places orders.
End-of-week stock checks
- Reorder points reviewed against two weeks of work
- Overdue purchase orders chased
- Actual delivery dates recorded per supplier
- Job leftovers labeled or scrapped
- Odd lots past cut-off decided
- Stock area walked and cleared
- Reorder points reviewed against the coming two weeks of scheduled work
- Outstanding purchase orders chased where the promised date has passed
- Actual delivery dates recorded against promised dates, per supplier, per item
- Leftovers from finished jobs labeled with the job, the customer and the lot, or scrapped deliberately
- Odd lots older than your own cut-off decided on rather than left
- Stock area walked: nothing on the floor, nothing wrapped open, nothing blocking a route
The delivery date record is the item shops skip and later wish they had. Lead times drift quietly, and the first visible sign is a press standing.
End of month
An hour, done with the job tickets in front of you.
End-of-month reconciliation checks
- Parent sheets issued reconciled to product shipped
- Spoilage recorded by cause
- Spoilage compared to quoting allowance by job type
- Consumable usage compared to output
- Stock value counted for accounts
- Stockouts written down with press-time cost
- Parent sheets issued reconciled against product shipped, job by job
- Spoilage recorded by cause: makeready, folder setup, bindery jam, damage, operator error
- Spoilage compared to the allowance used in quoting, by job type rather than in aggregate
- Consumable usage compared to output, to catch a machine that has started drinking
- Stock value counted or estimated on a consistent basis for the accounts
- Anything that stocked out during the month written down with what it cost in press time
Aggregate spoilage hides the answer. A shop that runs at a reasonable overall allowance can still be losing badly on one job type, and only the per-type comparison shows it. What to do with the result is set out in sizing stock from lead time and usage.
End of quarter
Half a day, done by the owner.
End-of-quarter owner checks
- Full physical count against records
- House stock list reviewed
- Reorder points recalculated from recorded lead times
- Supplier performance reviewed
- Second source confirmed for press-stopping items
- Slow-moving and dead stock decided
- Safety data sheets checked current
- Storage checked against fire and environmental rules
- Full physical count of house stocks, against the records
- House stock list reviewedis this still what we quote from, or has it drifted?
- Reorder points recalculated from the lead times actually recorded this quarter
- Supplier performance reviewed on promised against actual, claims and stockouts
- Second source confirmed for every item that stops a press
- Slow-moving and dead stock decided on rather than counted again
- Safety data sheets checked as current and available to the people using the material
- Storage checked against what your fire authority and state environmental agency require
The supplier half of that review has its own question set in what to ask a supplier before the account opens.
The parts of this that are not optional
Two lines above carry obligations rather than preferences.
Chemical information must reach people who handle the material, as the hazard communication standard requires. Container labeling is part of that. OSHA's printing industry pages are the starting point for what applies to your shop.
Your state environmental agency and your local fire authority set storage quantities, cabinets, and the disposal route for waste ink, solvent, and rags. Ask them about your own site, not a general summary.
The reconciliation record is also an ordinary business record. The IRS guidance on what a business should keep covers the form and how long it has to survive.
Who owns each cadence
| Cadence | Owner | Time | The one item that matters most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | Whoever closes the floor | Five minutes | Tomorrow's jobs checked against stock physically present |
| Weekly | Whoever places orders | Half an hour | Actual against promised delivery dates |
| Monthly | Production or the owner | An hour | Sheets issued against product shipped |
| Quarterly | The owner | Half a day | Reorder points rebuilt from real lead times |
Name the person, not the role, on the copy that hangs in the stock room. The full sourcing picture these checks sit inside is in how a shop buys, holds and reconciles its material, and what the presses consume, at what rate, comes from the machines themselves.
Common questions
Is a physical count every quarter really necessary?
On house stocks, yes. Records drift, damage goes unrecorded and sheets get borrowed between jobs. A count is how you find out by how much.
What do I do with leftover stock from a customer's job?
Label it with the job, the customer and the lot, and tell them it exists. Unlabeled leftovers become general stock in practice and someone else's property in an argument.
How do I record spoilage without slowing the floor down?
One line on the job ticket with a cause from a short fixed list. Free text takes longer to write and cannot be counted afterward.
Should stock control be software or paper?
Whichever gets done every day. A simple record that is always current beats a detailed system that is updated when someone remembers.
