Stocking Types

In most inventory environments, such as a manufacturing, nonstock parts are rare. Within the maintenance organization, however, the demand for parts is often not predictable; it is impractical to stock every part for which a future demand might exist. Generally, maintenance planners consider inventory as a way to handle emergency replacement parts, and as a temporary holding area for stock and nonstock parts.

This table lists the three stocking types that exist within the maintenance organization:

Stocking Type	Description
Stock parts	The most vital parts for which you know predictable demand exists, such as parts required for routinely scheduled maintenance tasks. Typically, you need to maintain a physical inventory of these parts.
Pseudo nonstock parts	Parts for which you do not need to keep a physical on-hand quantity, such as parts that are required for future maintenance tasks, or parts that are easily and quickly acquired. Typically, you do not need to maintain a physical inventory of these parts; but you do want to maintain inventory records to help with planning and to simplify purchasing. You can set up pseudo nonstock parts with an inventory master record and indicate an on-hand quantity of zero.
Nonstock parts	Parts for which you rarely have a need and for which you do not need an inventory master record.