How to label an engineering stores so parts are actually findable.

01Start with two decisions

A findable stores rests on two systems, kept separate on purpose:

Where a part lives, a location code that never changes when stock moves in and out. And what a part is called, a naming convention so the same item is described the same way every time. Get these two right and the labels, the shelves and the search all fall into line. Get them wrong and no amount of tidying sticks.

The golden rule underneath both: every part has one home, and every home has one label.

02How to code your storage locations

Give every storage position a fixed address, from the aisle down to the bin. A four-part code covers almost any stores:

B aisle, 04 bay, C level (shelf, from the floor up), 07 bin. Label the aisle ends, the bay uprights, the shelf edges and the bin fronts, so you can walk to B-04-C-07 without opening a drawer. Number left to right, bottom to top, the same way every aisle, so the pattern is learnable.

The location is an address, not a description. A bearing that moves shelf keeps its part number and changes only its location code. Print the code as a barcode or QR on the bin label so it can be scanned, and so whatever system holds the stock always points to the same spot.

03How to name your parts

Free-text descriptions are where a stores quietly falls apart: "belt", "v-belt", "drive belt" and "SPZ belt" become four entries for one part. The fix is the noun, modifier, then detail convention used across MRO cataloguing, plain English, most general word first, so anything sorts and searches together.

Keep the manufacturer's part number as its own field, and cross-reference the OEM number to the generic equivalent, so "the Motovario gearbox on Line 3" and its catalogue number both find the same shelf. Say the noun the engineer would say, and you never need a translation guide.

04The part categories, and what goes in each

Group the stores into commodity families. Give each a short code prefix and, if you can, a colour for its zone and labels, so a whole category reads at a glance. A workable set for a manufacturing site:

Two families earn special handling. OEM and machine-specific spares are best held by the line or asset they belong to, not mixed into the generic commodity racks, so a breakdown on Line 3 has its critical spares in one place. And lubricants and chemicals need shelf-life dates, first-in-first-out and the right COSHH storage, not just a shelf.

05Where to put each part

Not every part deserves the same shelf. Rank them two ways and let that decide placement.

By movement (ABC). A handful of fast movers account for most of the picking. Put the A-items, the parts pulled every week, at waist height by the issue point. Push the slow C-items up high or to the back.

By criticality. Separate from value: a cheap sensor that stops a line if it fails is a critical spare. Flag those, hold the minimum you'd need to survive a lead time, and never let them run to zero. A short critical spares register, the parts that would put a line down and where they are, is the single most useful list a stores keeps.

Then keep families together so a job is one trip: bearings with their seals, belts with their pulleys, a valve with its fittings.

06What to put on a bin label

A good bin label answers every question at the shelf, and stands up to oil and a gloved hand. Put on it:

Print on durable, oil-resistant label stock, one consistent template, generated from your parts list rather than handwritten. Handwritten labels drift; printed ones from a single source stay honest.

07How to keep it that way with 5S

Labelling is the easy day. Staying labelled is the discipline, and 5S is the well-worn frame for it:

Good background on the practices above: MRO storeroom training (Machinery Lubrication), the spare parts naming convention (Reliabilityweb), and ABC analysis of MRO inventory (Plant Services).