What should be in a service vans stock?

Bill @ Boro

OK guys, I have noticed that I have been ordering more material than usual from my supply houses. I have a tech on vacation that left his service van at the shop for repairs and such. I was calibrating my techs analizers and took this guys kit from his van to do the calabration and my jaw almost hit the floor. He had at least 10 sets of 3/4 & 1/2 brass nipples, who knows how many brass fittings, at least 300 flair fittings , and to top it off about 300 compression fittings (even after my meeting last Oct saying I don't care if you sell them for mongo get rid of them). Does anyone have a material list for a service tech van. I know Petro has one, but it is carried by the supervisors, and is hard to get a copy of(hint). I would appreciate you input in this matter. I moved inside to become my company GM after being a service tech for the company for 13 years so I do know all the tricks the guys pull, (I have three techs that got away with murder for many years). The trick now is to keep my three new hires from falling into the same habits. Thanks for your help.

Alan R. Mercurio

When I was a Service Manager

This was most of what I stocked in my van and 4 others with a 3,000 customer base primarly Oil Heat as you'll see.

Nozzles solid, hollow, semi-solid and semi hollow angles 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90 GPH .50 – 3.00. Four of each for the more common and One of each for the less common your customer base will dictate what’s common and what is not.

Porcelains small, medium and large

Buzz bars and misc. transformer connections.

Riello Parts kit (don’t leave home without it)

Transformers Ignition for most models also two way universal and a six way universal. A Carlin CCT kit is a plus. (Saves space and inventory cost)!

Fuses 1.) box 15 amp 1.) box 20 amp 1.) box 25 amp (some misc. barrel fuses also)

Transformers 120 volt – 24 volt. Multi tap 220/208/120 volt – 24 volt

Fan center. 2.) R8285

Aquastat Triple w/primary R8182 & without L8124A also 6006 & 4006

Switching relay for zoning 2.)R845

Primary control 3.) R8184

Cad Cell 6.) plug in eyes 6.) Eyes complete with harness. 4.) kit with brackets

Thermostats round T87, vertical and horizontal. Extra sub bases heating/cooling sub base

Combination fan and limit 11 ½ 5 ½

Rolls of wire 250 ft 10-2 w/grnd 250 ft 14-2 w/grnd 250 ft armor cable 14-2 w/grnd

Rolls of thermostat wire 1 roll of 18/2 1 roll of 18/5

Box connects of all types don’t forget a couple bags of red heads J

Wire nuts 1 box blue 1 box orange 1 box yellow 1 box red

Assorted collection of spade connectors

Coil for honeywell oil delay valve 116649A, oil delay valve itself honeywell V4046, coil for reversing valve (a/c)

Pressure troll for steam PA404, sight glass and gaskets

Burner couplings, circulator couplings 4.) B & G 2.) Taco 2.) Spiro-link

Circulator Flange gasket

Rubber gasket material 3’ x 3’ sheet

Circulator 2.)Taco 007

B&G Bearing assembly 1.) 189134 (this part # is for the 100 series)

Pressure reducing valve (water feed) 12-15 lbs 2) ½”

Pressure Relief valve for boiler 30lbs 3) ¾” male 3) ¾” female

Pressure Relief valve for water heaters 125 Lbs. 2) ¾” male

Air vents 1/8th inch 4) float type

Mixing valve Watts 70A 2) ½”

Fuel pumps 2) 3450rpm 2)1725rpm and 1) J-Pump

Oil safety valve. 1) 3/8ths

Firo-matic oil valves. 4) inline flair type 3/8ths 2) bottom tank type 3/8ths

Burner motors 2) 3450rpm 1/7 hp rev. 2) 1725rpm 1/8 hp rev.

Blower motors 1) 1725rpm belt driven 1/3 hp

Blower motors for mobile home 2) with long shaft and universal bracket

Blower belts 2 each 29” to 55”

Burner heads. Beckett 2) F0 2) F3 2) F6 2) F12 also 2) SE2

Burner blast tube 1) beckett 6 5/8ths 1) beckett 9” 1) beckett 13”

Brass flair fittings ¼ through ½ flair nuts, flair plugs flair to flair ect.

Nozzle lines 6) 3/16 and 6) ¼”

Oil line 2) 60ft rolls 3/8 od. 1) 60ft roll ½” od.

Kaowoll blanket 1. Box ½” 48 “ x 16”

Combustion chamber. 2) Miller 6) miller pouch Gaskets and 6) miller burner gaskets

Burner Gaskets 6) Beckett 6) Carlin 6) Riello 6) universal

High temp silicone red. 6) tubes

Chimney cement. soft mix and hard

Flue pipe 4 sections each 5” through 8”

Flue pipe elbows 2 each 5” through 8”

Flue pipe reducers 2 each 10 x 9, 9 x 8, 8 x 7, 7 x 6 and 6 x 5

Copper fittings ½” through 1 ¼”

Black fittings ½” through 2”

Plastic fittings ½” through 1”


Copper length ( L) 2.) 20ft ½” 2.) 20ft ¾” 1.) 20ft 1” 1.) 20ft 1 ¼”

Valves stop & waste ½ “ ¾ “ swt 10 of each

Valves ball valves ½ “ through 1” swt 3 of each

Boiler drains ½ “ & ¾ “ 8 of each

Lots of misc. nuts, bolts, washers and screws ect.

Some of these items I have not included the amounts to be stocked. That has to be determined by your sales history in my opinion. The amounts will increase and decrease with respect to the season. Naturally the numbers would be higher during the colder weather


Your friend in the industry,
Alan R. Mercurio
www.oiltechtalk.com

Bill_14

Consider this...

Take some time and sit down and make a listing of every piece of material, equipment and tools a service truck in your business needs. You should have a good handle on this yourself.

Don't ask each man what he wants or needs...that would be very disturbing to your boss!

Clean out each service truck.

Stock back each truck inventory in accordance with your list. Stock all trucks the same, if possible.

Maintain an inventory control and develop a purchase order system...anything to keep guys from running to the supply houses all the time getting new tools, extra materials, etc. that they "think" might be needed.

Replenish inventory used on trucks weekly by stocking from job tickets. Keep in mind that "inventory" means commonly used items that you need to stock in your shop or on each truck.

Trucks should be cleaned like this once a year and should be checked often depending on the tech.

In time, you will get this under control and will save your company lots of money in labor savings and material costs...especially if you can decrease or eliminate arbitrary purchasing by each and every tech.

You won't be real popular in doing all of this, but it might be an important first step in letting them know your new job responsibilities. Understand this is a lot of work to get all of this done, but the time and effort is worth it.

Good luck.

Bill Russell

Unknown

TRUCK STOCK for gas servicing

if you send me an e-mail with your mailing adress I will send you a truck stock list for GAS SERVCING if you need it. I do not know if you just do oil or just plumbing.

Bill NTSG

Commercial Accounts...

... with special needs and special parts can be stocked on site in a locked parts cabinet. This will eliminate the need to duplicate these special parts in every service truck. Some one has to take responsibility for replacing the parts when used. I have worked for small, medium and large oil companies. The parts varied from each company. Right now I am with a small company [less than 3 thousand accounts] and get away with much less inventory than with previous jobs. Most of the "over stock" techs I knew were very conscientious. They were w/o a part one late night and swore it would never happen again. So when at the supply house they get two! Set some guide lines but leave a good tech a little leeway to tailor his inventory. An iron fist rigid "bean counter" mentality may just drive a good serviceman to another company or cause a bad attitude. When you find the answer to the inventory puzzle please let us know.

Bill @ Boro

Stock room

Don't want to sound like I am rambling, but, my company has always had an open stock room policy. We have always felt that we can trust our guys. I know that I will be hated for this, but I am now closing my stock room, and if a tech needs parts he has to bring the old part back, this will also solve my problem with techs leaving old parts in the customers basement, Brooklyn habit I guess (if I can only get them to take the rubber gloves they use). I guess it is time to run a tight ship with times as they are.
Thanks

Bill_14

There is no right answer. It all depends on how you want to run your business. You can do this inventory thing loose and wasteful or you can do it with a little thought.

We never lost a good serviceman for not getting to "over stock" his truck. We go out of our way to make sure every tech has what he needs and wants and we are really comfortable with the understanding of how to retain employees. I just think it is important to understand the need for policies and procedures and if you don't have some control, it will be "monkey see, monkey do".

I never did get along with "bean counters" either.

Go ahead and make your list Bill C. and keep your stock room area locked. If you don't get a handle on all of this now, you will be fighting an uphill battle. Alan provided a great list if that fits the type of work you do.

Bill Russell

Al_3

is your service van an asto van or a 14' cube van,

Bill @ Boro

full size vans

Al_3

there is no correct answer to your question, there are to many variables. you really need to figure out what you use on a yearly basis in your area and come up with an educated
guess of what you will need.

Alan R. Mercurio

Lock it up it's your baby

I agree 100% with the thought of locking up the supply room. When I explained to my guys that I alone was responible/accountable for, what went in and what went out they were all very understanding I did not leave them high and dry either there was an area accessible to them with some extra misc. common parts.

this was mainly set up for the guy on call. They also new if need be I was always just a phone call away. If I were not available a lead technician would be made responsible in my absence.

I like your idea about having the guys bring the parts back if for nothing else it keeps the area associated with us and our industry clean. for major parts we had a shelf that we would hold a part for 30 days in the event a customer had a question or wanted to see the part that had been replaced. as for restocking the guys parts I had a locker for each guy and a part number system set up for almost all our parts. I would receive a copy of each service order because I would normally be reviewing them on a weekly bases anyway. Once we had our inventory system set up I could now use these service orders to see what parts needed to be restocked. If someone said I need a double a 007 and there had not been a service order to substantiate the need? there would be some explaining to do. This hardly ever happened.

I hope this information or at least part of it will be useful to you.

Your friend in the industry,
Alan R. Mercurio
www.oiltechtalk.com

Jim_47

Gas service list

Timmie I'd love to see that list!
Please add me to the distribution.
Thanks

BillW@honeywell

Controls

Honeywell has developed a "Universal" line of certain controls that do help reduce the amount of stuff you need to carry. The S8610U intermittent pilot module for gas ignition replaces over 300 controls, the S8910U replaces many hot surface ignition controls, and the R7184U replaces most oil primaries out there.

Mad Dog

Trust is Golden, but

many in this trade (including me) are not bean counters, and tend to just go from job to job, getting the job done, and going to the next one, havin, a few beers and goin' home...all to be repeated the next day - let some bean counter in the shop keep and check inventory....Mad Dog

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