Consider this image: It’s been a while since the last time someone called your station for an emergency. You wake up and proceed with your everyday routine. You get a cup of coffee and turned on the tv, you watched the news and learned about the pandemic. You just found out that hundreds of thousands of people have already been infected and that your country just closed its borders. You were in shock and you ask yourself: “what’s my life as a firefighter going to be?”
Your current ways or techniques in handling problems are no longer efficient these days compared to the regular old days. You may be thinking of new ways to make your job more efficient. Who knows, maybe the things you’re used to in the past can be improved, maybe you just haven’t explored modern techniques yet.
What can you do to make things easier?
There are consumable and non-consumable supplies in a fire station.
Consumables include truck wash, alcohol, paper towels, hand soap, and other supplies, whereas non-consumable items are gears, equipment, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) products.
Even if you’re motivated enough to record and monitor everything manually, there’s still a big chance of you encountering problems or mistakes. To handle these things more effectively and to avoid chaos in the station because of missing and lacking supplies, you need an efficient tool to help you do things perfectly.
Items in every station move fast everyday, whether there are drills, emergencies, or even on regular days. A powerful tool such as an inventory management software will help you record, monitor, and access data anytime, thus making your job more efficient and accurate.
How can Inventory Management System (IMS) make things easier?
An IMS requires a little more investment than your traditional inventory management. However, the features and the help it offers far outweigh the cost. It can give you more visibility in the overall movement of inventory. A properly-managed inventory is crucial for a seamless operation and is a big help in responding quickly during emergencies. Organized supplies help the firemen to more efficient during emergencies and prevent the loss of lives and further damage to properties.
What makes everything visible is an actual map of the locations, a visual picture of your day-to-day operations. With a map, you can monitor supplies as they move around the station and during any operation.
Below is a sample inventory map where you can find all the locations in your station:
Everything and anything in your office that has items inside it is a location. From small bins to cabinets, shelves, and rooms. Even a fire truck can be considered a location. Every person in a fire station has his/her own supplies, and these supplies have to be monitored to avoid losses.
Aside from having inventory visibility, the standard features found in an IMS are:
- Inventory Management
- Inventory Alerts
- Barcoding
- Transfer Management Capabilities
- Easy Access and Real-Time Updates
Conclusion
Firefighters can’t go inside fires naked, there are necessary equipment that will help them fight the flames and keep them from becoming victims. The job of inventory personnel is to optimize the inventory, to make the jobs of firefighters a little easier.
Inventory management System (IMS) is worth it, but you have to find a system that best fit your needs. If you have problems with inventory visibility, then you would need an IMS that has a visual map feature.
The Map Makers 