Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

74 EFFICIENCY METHODS notify to the purchasing department as soon as the ordering level has been reached. No elaborate overhauling of the stores-room is ever necessary, nor need its daily operations ever be stopped. A return of the whole stock carried can be obtained from the card index monthly, or as often as required, by a single clerk in a few hours’ work. The card index is often called the “ stores ledger.” Another method is to attach a " tag ” (a label, made of very tough paper, resembling a large luggage- label) to the bin or other receptacle which carries the material. Entries are made on this tag similar to those described above. The entries are readily made on the spot when any change ife made, and the balance can easily be read by anyone visiting the receptacle. Besides the obvious drawbacks that the tag will get very dirty, and that the entries may often be carelessly written by the different hands making them, the weak point is that if any report is to be made in the office the tag must be removed, and sent there, which is risky and troublesome. In some stores departments the removal and despatch of the tag is the form of requisition for more material, as soon as the ordering level has been reached; a temporary one of a different colour takes its place, and serves as a reminder of the condition of things. Details of this kind have been fully discussed in papers on the subject in recent numbers of engineer- ing magazines. The extent and the general arrange- ment of a store-room will vary a good deal accord- ing to whether it has to carry finished stock as well as