A spare laptop is only stock when it is ready
Nearly every organisation has a cupboard of equipment kept "in case something breaks". On the day something breaks, the battery is flat, the image is out of date and the device is not enrolled. This page is about the difference between a cupboard and stock, and about who keeps that difference up.
Four things that make stock into stock
The fourth is the one most often missing and the one that makes the other three worthless.
- Configured and enrolledThe spare carries the same image as the rest of the fleet and sits in management. A device still to be configured is not a spare but an order with a shorter lead time.
- Maintained and included in updatesEquipment switched off for months misses every round. A spare should be powered on, updated and tested periodically, otherwise the first action on the day it is needed is an hour of waiting.
- In the place where it is neededA spare at head office helps nobody at a site three hours away. Where the fleet is spread out, the stock should be too, and that is a calculation and not a feeling.
- With a number that means somethingNot one per site because that looks tidy, but a number that follows from how often something actually fails and how long a replacement takes. Those are two figures you already have as soon as somebody writes them down.
From cupboard to something you can count on
Three steps. The first is the only one that asks for a decision.
Decide what may sit idle
Per kind of workplace: how long may somebody be without. A reception desk and a till stand differently in that question than a desk, and the number of spares follows from that rather than from a percentage.
Prepare and maintain
The devices are configured, registered by serial number and included in the ordinary update round. What goes out is written off and what comes in is topped up, so the cupboard does not quietly empty.
Replenish at the moment it shows
Stock dropping below the agreed floor is an alert and not a discovery after the fact. That is the only way this works without somebody having to look at it weekly.
What this is not
Two things this resembles and is not.
- Not a warehouseWe do not hold general stock everyone can order from. What sits here is your equipment for your fleet, on your configuration, and the number is agreed with you.
- Not a replacement for warrantyA spare bridges the time until the failed device is back; it does not remove the warranty handling. Those two should run alongside each other, because a spare permanently in use has quietly become a purchase.
What goes with this
Stock hangs on the service desk and on what is being rolled out.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
How many spare devices do we need?
It follows from two figures you already have: how often something fails in a year and how long a replacement takes. A percentage of the fleet sounds logical and rarely holds; a reception desk where nobody can wait needs a different spare from a desk.
Is the stock held with us or with you?
Either works and it depends on where the fleet sits. With spread-out sites it usually works better to keep part of it on location, because a spare three hours’ drive away still costs a day on the day itself.
What happens to a spare that sits idle for months?
That is exactly the problem this service solves. A spare is powered on periodically, receives the updates and gets tested. Without that round the first action on the day it is needed is an hour of waiting, and then you might as well have had nothing.
Work out how much to hold
Say how many workplaces are involved and how long somebody can be without. You get back a number per kind of device, with the reason why it is not more.
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