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I finally made my crew log their supply runs and the waste was worse than I thought
I run a small plumbing shop outside Sacramento with four guys, and for a long time I just trusted everyone to grab what they needed from the supply house. Back in March I started having them write down every pickup on a clipboard, just part numbers and what job it was for. By June I added it up and we had spent $3,100 on fittings and copper that never showed up on any invoice to a customer. Turns out two guys were grabbing extra "just in case" and it piled up in their truck beds for months. I sit down with that clipboard every Friday now and we talk through anything that looks off. Any other owners here caught a hidden leak in their costs just by making people write stuff down?
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jessicac2826d ago
The part about stuff piling up in their truck beds for months is what got me. My buddy runs a small HVAC outfit down in Modesto and had almost the same thing happen. He started a sign out sheet for parts and about two months in he found out one guy was stashing capacitors and filters in his own garage, not even for side jobs, just grabbing them because it was easy. What killed him was the money, close to four grand over a year, and he never would have seen it without the paper trail. The wild part is the guy wasn't even selling the stuff, he just hated the idea of running out mid job so he hoarded it. My buddy switched to a locked cage for the pricey stuff and made everyone turn in old parts for the new ones. Sounds like your Friday clipboard thing is doing the same job, just making it visible so nobody can shrug it off.
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