Joseph J. Massad, DDS
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Welcome back! This month, I will be discussing an inventory system that can decrease wasteful overstocking of supplies. This system is utilized by many of the largest Fortune 500 companies today. The tough task is getting motivated to reorganize your entire office stockroom. However, I assure you that when you have completed this task, you will have eliminated much of the waste in your dental office. It will also allow you to be in control by always knowing where everything is located.
Many dentists overstock to be safe; however, if dated materials’ shelf-lives expire, this can be very costly. Storage rooms can be your worst enemy if items get out of order or lost in the clutter.
Let’s look at how successful large companies control their inventories and at the same time know exactly where everything is located. One good example is when you go to your grocery store and notice that a particular item is not on the shelf. If you ask the attendant if there are any of those items in the back, they are usually out of stock, unless that item came in that day and someone forgot to check the arrivals.
In a dental office, we generally do not use bar coding systems for inventory control. However, a very simple method of stocking the most utilized items can be as simple as using a plastic container system (Rez-Tech Corp., Plastic Jar Division) in the operatory to organize and instantly know when to reorder. You will also eliminate the mysterious stockroom.
Since each dental office individually anticipates their patient flow and the procedures most commonly performed, they can stock items accordingly. Most items are delivered the following day with only some exceptions.
