Ad Hoc VS Cyclic Stocktaking

[Cdnarmybear]

I was just wondering if any of the SIG on other bases have had any luck with implementing Cyclic Stocktaking. We are doing a trial with it on one of our warehouses here,and I would like some feedback on how it is working, or if other places are still doing AD-HOC.
(Armyvern, are you guys doing this out in Gagetown???)

 

[armyvern]

We still do a combination of both here. For Clothing, it's easier for us to pull an ad-hoc. Completely shut er down for one week every third year and count the place from top to bottom.

For the larger accounts (ie MAIN/SPSS) it's quite simply easier to go the cyclic route and have the computer generate count sheets. Total stock numbers held by the specific Warehouse (our main has 22000 different line items) divided by 156 (# of weeks in a 3 yr cycle) = # of different line items that must be counted each week.

Here, SIG section only generates our AdHoc or Cyclic reports for us. Warehouse staff do the counts and send them up to the SI Group who input our counts. No match? SI Group sends us the 2nd count sheet for required items. Still no match? SI Group sends their staff to do 3rd count and investigate discrepencies as required. We pull and provide any files they require for investigation.

The Warehouses then do the adjustments to the accounts and have the stocktaking reports (R,CDB121a ?) print off in the SI Group on their printers. They do up CF152s for furtherance to Base/Area Commander as required.

 

[Cdnarmybear]

Thanks for the info!
Right now we are doing Ad-hoc right now for all of our warehouses; we are trialing MSA3 for the cyclic and hope to have SPSS and Main on by the end of the year (they will be at the end of thier 4 yr by then) We want to get clothing on Cyclic here as they are rather short staffed and can't shut down due to all the courses they pump through here. The person I am handing over with has indicated that with the cyclic we would only have to input our def/surp and generate a report to aquit the other ones, which would be alot better than having to input every single count which is what we have to do with ad-hoc. So not only would it be a time saver for us, but good for the warehouses involved as well.

 

[armyvern]

The volume of personnel we support and the volume of courses is exactly the reason why clothing stores here is allowed to shut down for 1 week every 3 years to do ad-hoc. Quite simply put, there are 3500 personnel permanently posted to this location. We also serve approximately 6500 students per year who are undergoing trg at the Army Schools. This includes the CTC (Combat trg Centre) Infantry School, Artillery School, Armoured School, Tactics School and LFTEU. Not to mention the CFTSG School (CFSME) located here. We also provide support to all ResF members undergoing training in the LFAA (TC). On top of that, we provide direct clothing support to our Operational 1st line Units located on this base, 2 RCR, 4ESR and 4AD Regt. Not to mention 403 Tac Hel. As the only Army Base in the entire LFAA (NB, PEI, NS, NFLD) we are also mandated to provide all Clothe the Soldier support to Army Res F personnel accross the entire region. As well as support all CIC requirements for the same. As we are constantly deploying personnel from this location as well, Ops kittings take a significant amount of our time. We are indeed the busiest clothing stores with the widest mandate of support in the entire country.
We hold on file 8800 personal clothing doc accounts at this location (and we do not hold the docs for any students undergoing trg here or for any Res/CIC personnel who are located outside of NB). 8800 docs is approx 8% of individual clothing records in the entire CF at this one location. Due to our "business" here there is absolutely no way in NATO that the required resources can be dedicated year-round to counting line-items via a cyclic stocktaking. I would argue that if, with the level of support I am required to provide, I can justify/am allowed to close for 1 week every third year to perform an ad-hoc 100% stocktaking; that the justification for doing so in Wainwright's case could also be made.
You are correct with the paperwork remark that via cyclic only surplus' or defeciencies need to be transacted with the matchs being acquitted. For the ad-hoc all counts are input.
However; the small time-savings in paperwork for the SI Group for inputting the Clothing counts (if we did a cyclic) does not outweigh the benefits of allowing Gagetown Clothing Section to dedicate our total resources to serving our customers for 155 weeks straight and then closing for 1 week (which we try to co-incide with Unit/Schools block leave period lessening the impact). In the long run, the customer is better served by this than by me having to permanently remove 2 staff from my front counter year-round in order to count a couple of hundred line items each week. Especially when there's 30 people constantly in line for service here which is the norm.

 

[Timmy!]

That is true... and all I can say is wow...

 

[Cdnarmybear]

Armyvern,
That is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I have been in contact with the SIG in  Petawawa (the base where I was before being posted here) and they have indicated that they are doing all their warehouses by Ad-Hoc due to operational and training tempo. They also indicated that they tried the cyclic and it didn't work.

I don't know why the clothing stores here doesn't shut down for a week to do theirs; I am only going off of what I have been told by others. They have a count next week so I will be able to get  some feedback from them. Right know they are still on ad-hoc and they count min 15  items (give or take) every 2 weeks.(over a 4 yr period)
SPSS counts about 4-6 group classes once a month. I know from working at that section before I moved to Stkg that Cyclic would not be a good option for them. They are quite happy with the way they do things now.
Like I said before they are going to trial MSA3 this month for the cyclic, but I am not sure that is a good option for them either due to the increased activity they are having here with CMTC and the BTE serials and all the other activities that are being run here. We will find out if it is going to work or not.

Yes,there are advantages to cyclic, but just because it may involve less work for the SIG doesn't mean it is good for everyone else.
Having your counts that match aquitted right away is a benefit to both sides, but like you said pulling people away from their work to do counts every week is not viable when you are in a busy section.  If the wheel ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

I'm not adverse to trying out something new, but at the same time I like doing things by ad-hoc. Who knows, at the end of the day I might not have any say in the matter. But at least if I know all the pros and cons of each and know how the warehouses all function then at least I can make an argument for what would suit them best according to their needs. But then again, the cyclic trial may not work and we'll keep doing things the same as before

 

[Army SUP_TECH]

Get ahold of Comox we do them daily now.

 

[Cdnarmybear]

Thanks, I know a couple of poeple I can call there. MSA3 is on a trial for cyclic until september.All our other warehouses are still on ad-hoc for now. Are you finding you get alot of countsheets with 0 soh even though there is no location??

Cheers!