1. Storage of Materials - Stores Custody
সামগ্রী সংরক্ষণ
Safe custody of materials received in stores happens to be the foremost activity and concern of
any stores.
Materials received from various sources need to be stored properly in Stores for ensuring the
proper upkeep of material till its use, to ensure security and safety of the material, the ease of
retrieval and handling. The various aspects considered in the storage of material are as given
below:
Central stores- Sub stores :
The materials used by multiple users are usually stored at a central stores from where all the
users get the material. On the other hand, material which are used in a particular user
department only can be stored in a stores nearer to that department itself . Such Stores are Sub
stores in which all department / shop/ user specific items and some regularly used central items
are stored.
Commodity wise Stores :
The storage of material is also done on the basis of the nature of the commodity being stored as
the storage requirement, handling requirement and the precautions to be taken depend , to a
great extent, on the commodity being stored. For example, Lubricants are stored in a Lubricant
stores in drums are located in a central storage from where lubricants can be pumped out to
users. Similarly, Refractory bricks & other Refractory items are stored in the Refractory Stores.
Gasses are Stored in cylinders in Gas stores. Mechanical & electrical Spares & consumables
are stored in the respective Spares Stores/ consumable stores.
Petrol & diesel are stored in centralized storage with pumping facility for dispensing.
Codification / Cataloguing of items:
While using large number of items it is difficult to identify, account and handle the material by its
nomenclature alone. There can be near similar nomenclature yet items may be different. So, in
order to identify , each item is given a unique code representing that item alone for enabling
easy identification, accounting and handling it. The item code thus becomes a the
communicating mode for the item in the company and even outside. These item codes while
associated with full description of the item are also known as catalogue number of the item.
Thus for a scientific management , the items being handled by a stores need to be properly
codified. The codes are specific to an item and therefore are non repetitive and unique for each
item.

2. Bin Card :
Bin card is the document in the stores custody where the history of transactions of an item is
maintained. There are separate bin cards maintained for each of the stores item under separate
catalogue number. Each receipt and issue transactions are posted in the bin card giving the up
to date stock position of the item. The item description, unit of transaction and location of items
are also maintained in the Bin card. A typical Bin card has two parts , the top of the card and the
bottom of the card. Usually, while the top of the card shows the receiving history of the item , the
bottom of the card shows issues of the item.
Functionally, when an item is received in the stores, its receipt details are written on the top of
the card and thus its history of receiving gets maintained. Similarly, when it is issued from stores
, the issue details are written on the bottom of the card to maintain its issue history.
With increasing use of computers now a days, the role of Bin cards is slowly and gradually
diminishing and in most of the stores the manual handling of this vital information database has
given way to a highly sophisticated computerized system.
Location :
Location of an item in stores is the place where it is stored. The location of the stock of each
item is maintained so that any item can be easily traced , located for transactions like receipt &
issue.
There are two ways of maintaining item locations: Fixed location & random locations. In case of
fixed location system the item is stored in a specific place every time it is received. This fixed
location is maintained in bin cards.
In case of random location system, items are stored in different locations based on the
availability of space and corresponding location reference is given on the bin card against the
corresponding stock.
Preservation of material :
n any Stores, there is a time lag between the receipt & actual use of the material. Different
materials get deteriorated to different extent during the storage period based on the nature of
items. So, the items need to be preserved to maintain their useful life. The action taken to
maintain the useful life of the material to avoid its deterioration and maintaining its useful life is
known as
preservation of material. The useful life is also referred to as Shelf life. Items need to be initially
preserved to avoid deterioration during storage and subsequently they need to be verified for
any change in their conditions and corrective actions need to be taken to restore the
preservation.

3. Usually, preservation of materials is done in the following manner
1. Shelf life items monitoring:
Some items have fixed useful life beyond which they become useless. Such items are
known as shelf life items & the period within which they continue to have their useful life
is known as shelf life. Some of the items having shelf life are : Medicines, chemicals,
rubber items, chemicals and reagents etc.
The shelf life information of these items need to be maintained on the bin card or the
tags on them so that they can be issued for use before they get deteriorated.
2. Proper Storage :
For maintaining the useful life of the items stored for future use proper storage needs to
be ensured. Different materials have different storage requirement for ensuring their
useful life & to avoid damage /loss. The items which gets affected by keeping in open
weather needs to be stored in the closed storage spaces.
Also, there has to be a customized storage for hazardous materials.
Security & safety aspects of Storage:
While Storing the items care needs to be taken to ensure the security of the items so that the
items are available when required. Proper security needs to be maintained to ensure avoidance
of theft/pilferage of items. Costly & pilfer-able items may have to be stored in strong rooms,
Safes with lock and key. The movement of items in a store needs to be with proper
documentation to ensure accountability as well as precaution against pilferage/damages.
While storing the items it also need to be ensured that these material will not be a safety threat
to the persons handling them or the other material in the vicinity.
Thus Storage of materials , also known as Stores Custody is a critical activity of any Stores