Page 1 of 1

STOCK CONTROL USING ESTLITE

Posted: Wed 28 Mar, 2018 9:49 pm
by Bagpuss
I've been using Estlite quite a few years now and am more than happy with it, does anyone use it to keep track of moulding stock and if so, how effective is it ? I never bothered looking into it but thought this might make my life a bit easier when it comes to placing orders for moulding.
Amy words of encouragement ? :clap:

Thanks in advance,
Adam / Bagpuss

Re: STOCK CONTROL USING ESTLITE

Posted: Fri 30 Mar, 2018 2:27 pm
by JohnMcafee
While it is possible to set the system to predict the quantity of material that you will likely use for a given job, there is just no way to predict actual wastage day to day, job to job, or batch to batch - so you end up having to make manual adjustments to keep the thing accurate. This is the nature of the beast though, any automated system that the bespoke framer tries to set up will be plagued with the same difficulties.

That said, some folk may find that the extra effort to keep the stock record up to date to be worthwhile as the pay-off is realised at the point of sale where EstLite will notify you immediately if you do not have enough stock to complete the job as you price it. And if EstLite finds that you do not have the stock to complete the job it will go on to interrogate the suppliers database for availability and provide you with the information that will allow you to make a realistic decision on expected job completion.

Re: STOCK CONTROL USING ESTLITE

Posted: Mon 02 Apr, 2018 9:58 am
by Steve N
I agree with the first part of John's reply,
when you get your stock delivered you will have to manually enter each length of moulding, then when you are cutting , you will have to update the records each time, also take into account any damaged bits you have cut around to make your frames.

The other week I had some moulding come in which was only 6ft in length, total amount was just over what I ordered, which was more than I really wanted, I was just stocking up on a popular moulding, but if I had ordered only what I needed for that job, I wouldn't have been able to do the job, but the computer would have said "Yeah you have enough "

If you employ staff, you can have one doing 'stock inwards', another couple cutting and updating the records as they work, but I think if you are a 'One Man Band' outfit, you could find better way to fill your time - like making frames!

I just make a cut list each week, and on Monday morning, working from that list, just get each moulding required on the bench, if I can't find it, I add it to my order list.

Re: STOCK CONTROL USING ESTLITE

Posted: Tue 03 Apr, 2018 9:31 pm
by Bagpuss
Thanks for your comments gents, much appreciated. After all these years, I'm still trying to come up with a simple and accurate way of keeping on top my stock and at the same time not over ordering and adding to my mountain of unused moulding : ( I've been doing some Chop orders recently from Lion, not a lot but certainly for the more expensive "chunky" mouldings, I quite like this and will probably be doing more in the future :clap:

Thanks, Adam / Bagpuss