An extensive advertiser will require a good-sized room for the storage of printing, while for some concerns a small cabinet will answer the purpose. In storing, the packages should be arranged according to name, maintaining the alphabetical order so far as possible. A numerical arrangement, by form numbers, is sometimes recommended, but any filing scheme which makes it necessary to refer to a supplementary index to find a number before the article itself can be located is not favored.
A low stock limit should be set for every piece of printing that is used regularly and likely to be re-ordered. One of the most simple methods of handling this is to make one package of the quantity set, so arranging the stock that it will be the last package reached. On the outside a label is pasted—or a rubber stamp can be used—printed as follows:
This package must not be opened without first notifying the office. Failure to observe this rule will be considered sufficient cause for instant dismissal.
After the storage plan has been arranged then comes the question of stock records. A simple record which will show quantities received, issued, and on hand is needed. The form shown in Fig. 10 is used by a manufacturer who supplies dealers, who are his customers, with catalogs, booklets, and other forms of printing. The same form is adapted for use by a concern selling through branches or agencies, while for another business, the form would be modified, eliminating records of shipments.
This form is printed on a sheet punched for a loose-leaf binder. A sheet is used for each catalog, folder, booklet, circular, mailing card, or other piece of printing, the name being written at the top of the sheet. The sheets are filed in alphabetical order, indexed with suitably tabbed index sheets.
When printing is received and the order checked, the name and description is entered at the head of one of these sheets—except in the case of a re-order, when a sheet will be found in the binder. The date, quantity, from whom received, and the cost are next recorded in the proper columns. If it is a new piece of printed matter, the quantity received is also entered in the on hand column; if a reprint, the quantity is added to the stock on hand and the total extended.
For printing that is to be sent to a dealer, an order is entered on the form shown in Fig. 11. This gives detailed instructions for shipping, with the quantity and description of the matter to be sent. The order is made in duplicate. The original goes to the shipping clerk, while the duplicate, on a blank sheet, is kept in the office as a follow-up on the shipping clerk.
Fig. 11. Shipping Order for Printing to be Sent to a Dealer
As shipments are made, the shipping clerk enters in the columns provided for that purpose, the quantity sent and the date. When the entire order is filled, it is returned to the office. Every day the duplicates are examined and inquiry is made of the shipping clerk regarding any orders for which the originals have not been returned. When the original is received, the duplicate is destroyed.