RAILWAY STOREKEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 5

RAILWAY STOREKEEPING.

REDUCED TO A SCIENCE.

QUEER COLLECTION OF THINGS. EFFICIENCY WITHOUT WASTE. Since the reorganisation campaign the keeping of railway stores has been reduced to absolute simplicity, absolute certainty, and absolute safety—a bar of soap could not go astray without being traced. In the old days things were just a big higgledy-piggledy, and stocktaking was rather a cumbersome business. To-day the railway storekeeper has everything literally under his eye. and a glance at a card tells him instantly exactly how much of any one particular article he has in stock. There is no need for the man who wants some bolts to root round a corner among the ironmongery. Neatly stacked on racks everything from a needle to the railway equivalent of an anchor can be seen at a glance. Everything down to 2in bolts and screws is stacked in as orderly a manner as the books in a big library, and it isn't finnickiness that dictates this care. Everything has been thought out to ensure adequate storage room, simplicity in accounting, prompt delivery, and accurate recording. A store may be called on at a moment's notice for some article, which, thoush unusual, is essential, and a slance round the stores reveals a rather surprising variety of things. One sees brooms, brushes, chamois leathers, soap, and dozens of other things used about a station, but one never perhaps stops to thiuk how these railway people do their shopping. They are their own shopkeepers, and they have brought the matter down to a fine art. Wholesale and Retail. The main stores are at Wellington, and Petone, but in each district there is a very complete network of wholesale and retail distribution. It rather reminds one of the way they run things in the Army, but it is more economical. In the Army you had to make certain that there was enough and to spare, and one did, not have to be in the business long to realise why the war cost four millions a day. In "the Railway Department economy has to be considered as well as efficiency, and so the store must not be littered up with stuff that will not be used once in a blue moon. Every store must carry sufficient, but not superfluous quantities of every mortal thing that anyone connected with running a railway could possibly want, and probably want very quickly. Out at Newmarket there is a big red shed just across the rails from the station. That is the wholesale branch foe this part of the Island, and it is full of the most unexpected articles, from stacks of hurricane lamps, in their original packings (for you never know when a breakdown in some out of the way spot will necessitate sending half-a-dozen or so with a repair gang), bundles of spadet and shovels of various shapes, handles for all manner of things, such as picks, bundles of solder, detonators to be put on the rails to warn an approaching , train of some unexpected danger ahead, soap, brooms, brushes of all kinds, neat bundles of those little red and green hand flags the guard sticks in his pocket like a fountain pen, and even stacks of plain caps for porters and gold-braided ones for stationmasters. To see these officials surveying the scene from a busy platform you might imagine they were turned out by some famous outfitter, but there out at Newmarket are these identical "swanky" caps, gold braid and all, in the next compartment to some prosaic ironmongery and some swabbing mops. All Within Reach. In another shed the retail side of the business is carried on with just the same simplicity and accuracy, but here the man in charge counts his goods by the dozen instead of by the score or the hundred. The racks and shelves- are so arranged that none is higher than can be reached conveniently by the storeman from the floor level. There is thus no need for a ladder in these modern stores. The tiers of shelves are separated by aisles, at the end of each of which is a window. Thus ample light reaches every part of the storage area. Sufficient passage room is left to allow of trollies being run from any part of the building to the delivery door. Everything on hand is visible and immediately available. Each compartment bears a description of contents, and cards, in slots (kept under the shelf and pulling in and out like a drawer), are provided on which to record each receipt and issue.

The commodities are kept so arranged in their respective compartments that they may be counted rapidly by the unit, dozen, score, or hundred. Neat metal trays are provided for small items of the ring, nut, or rivet variety— little thinge likely to scatter about if not carefully looked after. Stock Cards. A comparison of the card with the stock shows immediately whether the accounting has been accurate. Other entries on the stock card indicate the minimum and maximum amounts of that particular commodity permitted to be held in stock. The card is thus a constant reminder to the stores staff as to when, and in what quantities, replacements should be ordered.. Besides this it records the rate value of the stock shown upon it. The stock card is really the key to the situation.

The efficiency of the storing arrangements permits of the limitation of supplies for workshops use to the actual requirements of each job. The stores branch *now deals in issues of small lines down to 2oz in weight, or a single item in number.

Stocktaking was formerly rather a mazy and lengthy business, but to-day it is simplicity, and the system might be called "stock at a glance."

An outsider so used to the old parrot cry about "red tape" gets rather a shock when he finds how thoroughly up to date —and a bit in advance of the average private firm—the New Zealand railways have become since the reorganisation.