There are few things more frustrating in a screen printing shop than getting a job set up on press, reaching for an ink color, and realizing you’re out.
Now production has to stop. Someone has to figure out if there’s another bucket hiding somewhere in the shop, determine whether you can mix what you need, or place an order and wait for more product to arrive.
That little inventory problem can quickly become a big production problem.
One simple way we’ve helped solve this is by creating an inventory shelf location system.
Give Everything a Home
The basic idea is pretty simple: every location on your inventory shelves gets its own address.
For example, you might have locations like:
1A-1, 1A-2, 1A-3, 1B-1, 1B-2...
The exact naming system isn’t really important. What matters is that every shelf location has a unique name and everyone in the shop understands how the system works.
Once the shelves are labeled, each ink gets assigned a location.
Then we take that information and put it into a searchable spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet might include:
- Product name
- Manufacturer
- Ink color
- Product or SKU number
- Shelf location
- Quantity on hand
- Minimum quantity
- Reorder quantity
Now instead of walking around the ink room looking through shelves — or asking the one person who somehow remembers where everything is — you can simply search the spreadsheet.
Need a particular red?
Search for it.
The spreadsheet tells you it’s in 1B-3.
Go to 1B-3, grab the ink, and get back to work.
It's Not Just About Finding Things
Knowing where everything is located is helpful, but the bigger benefit is inventory control.
Your spreadsheet, inventory software, or warehouse management system can be paired with a simple Kanban system to identify when important products need to be reordered.
The goal is to stop discovering that you're out of something when you need it.
If you know that a particular white ink is something you can't operate without, you shouldn't wait until the bucket is empty to order another one. Establish a minimum stock level that triggers a reorder while you still have enough inventory to keep production moving.
That gives purchasing time to replenish the product before it becomes an emergency.
Think Beyond Ink
This system doesn't have to stop with your ink department.
You can use the exact same idea for almost anything your shop keeps in stock:
Tape, platen adhesive, emulsion, screen chemicals, squeegee rubber, cleanup supplies, gloves, boxes, poly bags, printer supplies, maintenance parts — even trash bags and toilet paper.
If your shop regularly consumes it, there should probably be a system for where it lives, how much you have, and when you need to order more.
Small Systems Prevent Big Problems
Inventory management isn't the most exciting part of running a screen printing shop, but running out of a key product at the wrong time can get expensive quickly.
Finding out you're out of a certain ink color while a job is being set up on press is a huge speed bump. In some cases, it can bring production to a complete halt until that product can be replenished.
That means lost production time, schedule changes, rushed orders, additional shipping costs, and frustrated employees.
A labeled shelf, a searchable spreadsheet, and a simple Kanban replenishment system aren't complicated.
But used together, they create something extremely valuable:
Your team knows where things are, what you have, and what needs to be ordered — before it becomes a problem.
And that's exactly what a good shop system should do.