how Hard is it?

Most Parts Departments, if not all, use a Alpha numeric cataloging system, (that;s letters and numbers).

bins are usually set up left to right with the lowest letter and/or number being first. Examples:

Bin1, Bin2, Bin3, Bin4,  or Bin A, Bin B, Bin C, or A1, A2, A3  it really is pretty simple..

Parts in bins are usually set up the same way, lowest to highest - left to right.

It's really totally simple.

Every part has a bin number assigned to it, so when they come in, they get put away in the same spot, and are easy to find. When new parts arrive that you have never had before, they are assigned a bin, following the above, industry wide, format.

AND YET...

For some reason, as the parts come in, they don't always get to the bin they belong in, or they don't get put in order in the bin, or both. Why is this, Well it becomes more common when dealing with heavy bulky parts, the reason is pretty evident, Laziness.

Brake rotors for example are heavy and bulky, and some times putting them away requires moving other bulky heavy rotors to make room, and possibly, if the bin gets filled, some parts have to be moved to the next bin to allow the new ones room, which means you may have to shuffle more parts to make room, and then loading all that information into the computer. What happens is, the "Gee, there's room here" philosophy,  I'll just drop them here on top of these other ones in the next bin over. Laziness. Then when someone goes to the bin to pull the part they find that the parts aren't there. They then spend the next half hour going through every bin looking for the part. Meanwhile, the tech is waiting for his parts, the customer is waiting for their car, the next tech is waiting for this tech to get his parts so he can get to the window for the parts he needs because his customer is waiting for their car as well.

F@#king LAZINESS, funny thing though, Everyone complains when they have to hunt for parts, but NO one ever admits to making the short cuts.

AbsoF@#kinglutly Amazing!