In our era of fragmented supply chains and fast-changing market demands, inventory management has become a slippery challenge – one that consumes more and more procurement energy, but often results in more outages, more overstocks, and a higher total cost of ownership.
This is especially true for the hundreds (or thousands) of day-to-day consumables you rely on to run your business – items that are small and inexpensive individually, but highly complex and costly to manage in total.
With a broad-line product offering, tailored in-market inventory, and a dedicated local service team, Fastenal is ready to help you consolidate, simplify, and transform this resource-draining cost center into a competitive edge. Our mission: help you reduce inventory, delays, processing, and freight – freeing up cash, space, time, and talent to grow your business faster.
Fastenal has been a pioneer in industrial VMI since the early 1970s (before the term ‘VMI’ even existed). Over the years this service has become absolutely central to who we are: a supply chain partner who’s ‘local’ enough to handle the heavy lifting of material management, but ‘global’ enough to bring true value to the venture – in terms of sourcing, logistics, quality assurance, implementation, and engineering and lean six sigma consultation.
Our electronic solutions extend ‘the Internet of things’ to your bin stock inventory, utilizing various sensing technologies to report your current inventory status and automatically generate orders when inventory falls below your desired minimum level – a fully automated process ensuring seamless product flow.
A single bin system which utilizes infrared sensors to provide real-time visibility of APPROXIMATE quantity and inventory values. A wireless sleeve with infrared sensors is placed on the inside of the bin to read inventory states that are above or below min level based on how many sensors are blocked by product. The FAST Bin – Infrared solution works best for loose, unpackaged parts where product levels can be incrementally sensed and measured.
A series of infrared beams within the bin sense and report three basic inventory levels – ‘above min’ (all is well), ‘below min’ (an order is generated), and ‘low’ (alerting your Fastenal service representative to head over right away).
A classic two-bin (or multi-bin) kanban system … with a twist. When the front bin runs out, the user places it in a ‘replenishment zone,’ where an RFID tag on the bin signals a change in the inventory status and generates an order to the local Fastenal branch.
The FAST Bin - RFID solution is a two-bin or multi-bin Kanban system that utilizes RFID tags and a reader to provide real-time visibility of APPROXIMATE quantity and inventory values. The RFID tags are placed on two bins of the same part & quantity. Empty bins are place in the Replenishment Zone to alert of a change to the inventory state and trigger an automatic reorder. This solution can be easily adopted by customers already using multi-bin systems for both packaged and loose parts.
Unlike our infrared and RFID solutions, which communicate approximate inventory levels (full, below min, etc.), our scale technology utilizes high-precision weight sensors to provide a real-time view of the exact number of pieces in each bin – a good fit for critical or high-value OEM parts.
The FAST Bin – Scale solution utilizes a high-precision weight sensor system to provide real-time visibility of EXACT quantity and inventory values as each piece is removed.
Fastenal-managed solutions rely on our personnel or technology to monitor your inventory and generate replenishment orders. But what if you prefer to handle these tasks internally?
Enter Fast Scan, our iOS-based scanning solution. Simply scan the bar code labels of the bins that need to be refilled, then send the order via Fastenal.com to your servicing Fastenal branch for flexible fulfillment – an efficient solution that keeps you in complete control.
(*Wifi required; Cellular service may be an option)
If you would prefer to monitor and generate orders using your own employee labor, Fastenal will organize and label your part locations and provide you with an iPod-based scanning solution. Once the system is in place, we can either ship orders to your dock or put them away at the point of use, depending on your needs.
Step 1: Implementation
Fastenal creates labels, puts labels on bins, and loads parts to Fastenal.com.
Step 2: Scan Items That Need Replenishment
Use your iPod device to scan preset amounts for single-scan use, or adjust amounts as you scan.
Step 3: Review and Place Order
Use the device to review and submit orders via an active internet connection to Fastenal.com.
Step 4: Continuous Improvement
Fastenal provides usage reporting by location and reccomends opportunities to optimize min/max levels, standardize parts, and make other improvements to the program.
In short: WE implement the system, YOU do the scanning and ordering, and WE provide local inventory and service to keep the product flowing. This is a great fit for union environments, high-security facilities, and any business that prefers a customer-managed, Fastenal-supported inventory solution.