Monday, February 20, 2012

CTA to Auction Off One-Third of Inventory

Wow. That’s efficiency for you.

As part of the initiative to cut costs and increase efficiency, the CTA plans to auction off about one-third of its total inventory of unused parts and supplies in late spring, officials said. It will also hire a qualified company to manage inventory, they said.

[...]

Almost half of the CTA’s total supplies have not been moved in the past year and are worth about $32 million, officials said.

One aisle at the main warehouse contains more than 4,800 decade-old items worth about $6 million, officials said. Another section boasts about 80 outdated bus heaters, worth about $174,344, that were ordered in 2006 but became useless when the CTA switched to newer models of buses.

The items, some of which have sat on shelves for 10 years, have accumulated in CTA warehouses due to poor inventory management and an ineffective tracking system, both problems officials are trying to solve, Claypool said. Large multiple orders in 2008, for example, resulted in a 25-year supply of window films, valued at $109,755.

(6) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2104 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. It will also hire a qualified company to manage inventory, they said.

    What does this say about the people currently managing inventory?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 20, 2012 at 2149 hrs


  2. Being very familiar with the industry, they shouldn’t have any problem getting rid of the old parts. Most smaller transit systems make their buses last longer than big systems by shopping around for old buses and parts.

    The Feds (you) pay about 90% of the cost of each new bus, the transit system pays about 10%, and I suspect the officials at CTA fell into the mindset of “it’s not our money, so who cares.” I’ve found many transit people to be so secure in their jobs that they don’t care one bit about doing the right thing. Laziness abounds in the industry.

    The fact that they have to hire an outside firm to manage their inventory is a red flag that nobody at the CTA can get it done. This isn’t a new problem, they’ve been incompetent for years and management wasn’t able to fix it.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 21, 2012 at 0640 hrs


  3. sure is easy to spend other peoples money!!!Once again, not taxed enough…..taxes are too low….there is no fat in this budget…...blah blah blah

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 21, 2012 at 0956 hrs


  4. Don’t tell Tom Barrett… he’ll be shopping for parts for his trolley!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 21, 2012 at 1051 hrs


  5. Until I got about 2/3s of the way down I really thought I was reading about a CIA auction.  I was really excited to get some cool CIA shit, whatever that would be.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 21, 2012 at 1136 hrs


  6. Coop,

    lol- Would Tom Barrett actually be that frugal?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 21, 2012 at 1309 hrs


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