Key blank and transponder inventory: a system that survives the van
An automotive locksmith carries a small warehouse in a van: hundreds of key blanks, transponder chips, remote shells, batteries and blades, many of them worth more than the labour on the job they go into. Most shops track that warehouse by memory. The result is familiar: the part you need is the one you ran out of, and the drawer is full of parts for cars you have not seen in two years.
This guide sets out a stock system sized for one van or a small shop. It works on paper, in a spreadsheet or in software. The method is the same.
What should you track, and what can you ignore?
Do not start by counting everything. Start with the parts that decide whether you can finish a job today.
| Group | Track individually? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Transponder chips and remote head keys | Yes, every type | Expensive, job-critical, and a missing one ends the job |
| Smart keys and proximity remotes | Yes, every type | The most expensive items you stock |
| Key blanks you use every week | Yes | Cheap, but running out costs a trip |
| Key blanks you use a few times a year | As a group, or not at all | Counting them costs more than they are worth |
| Batteries, shells, blades, clips | By pack, not by piece | Reorder when you open the last pack |
| Tools and programmer tokens | Yes, as assets | Different question: where is it and when does it renew |
A useful first target is 30 to 50 part types: the ones that cover most of your weekly jobs. Get that list accurate before you add anything else.
How do you set a reorder point?
A reorder point is the quantity at which you order more, so that the new stock arrives before the old stock runs out. The arithmetic is short:
Reorder point = weekly usage x supplier lead time in weeks + a safety margin.
If you use four of a chip per week, the supplier takes one week, and you want one week of safety, the reorder point is eight. When the count hits eight, the chip goes on the order list. It does not matter that eight "feels like plenty".
Two adjustments from practice:
- Round up for anything that ends a job. If a missing part means a lost job and a wasted trip, one extra week of safety stock is cheap insurance.
- Round down for anything expensive and slow. A smart key you use twice a year does not need a reorder point. Order it when a customer confirms the job, and price the wait into the quote.
Review the reorder points twice a year. The cars on the road change, and last year's fast mover becomes this year's dead stock.
How do you keep the van and the shop in step?
Stock in two places is where most systems fall apart. Three rules keep it manageable:
- One list, not two. Track the total per part, and keep the van loaded from a fixed "van kit" list: for each part, the quantity the van should leave with. Restock the van to the kit on a fixed day.
- The job takes the part out, not you. Whatever the system, a part should leave stock as a step of closing the job, in the same minute, at the car. A count that waits for the evening will be wrong by Friday.
- Corrections are normal. Parts get dropped, miscounted and lent to a colleague. When a count is wrong, correct it on the spot and move on. A system that makes corrections awkward gets abandoned.
What does a weekly stock routine look like?
Fifteen minutes, same day every week:
- Open the low-stock list: everything at or under its reorder point.
- Build one supplier order from it. One order a week beats five small ones, in delivery charges and in attention.
- Restock the van to the van kit.
- Spot-count five part types, a different five each week. In ten weeks you have checked your whole short list without ever doing a full stocktake.
- When the order arrives, book it in the same day, with the price you actually paid.
Step 5 matters more than it looks. The price you paid on the last order, including delivery, is the cost your job prices should be built on. Catalogue prices drift, and a price list built on last year's cost quietly gives away margin.
What does dead stock cost?
Every part on the shelf is money that is not in the bank. A simple check: once a year, list every part type that has not moved in twelve months and add up its cost. For a shop that has bought "just in case" for a few years, that total can easily reach the price of a new programmer.
You have three options for dead stock: sell it to another locksmith at cost, bundle it into a discount for a customer with the matching car, or write it off and stop reordering. Any of them beats letting it sit.
Paper, spreadsheet or software?
- Paper works for the van kit list and nothing else.
- A spreadsheet handles the short list, reorder points and the weekly routine well, as long as one person updates it and does so every day. It breaks when a second person uses parts, because a spreadsheet cannot take a part out of stock when a job closes.
- Software earns its cost when stock is tied to jobs: the parts on a job come off the count when the job starts, a supplier order increases it and records the price, and the low-stock list builds itself. That is how inventory works in Nyrano, including a quick count correction from the phone for the miscounted drawer. Nyrano can also keep stock per van: each van has its own count, and parts on a job come off the van of the technician doing it. Each part can have a number to keep in every van, so the van kit list from rule 1 lives in the app and each van shows which parts are low.
Whatever you choose, judge it by one question a week from now: when the phone rings for a 2017 Fiesta with no keys, do you know before you start the van whether the blank and the chip are in it?