Materializing with the MTS Stores Team

All MTS employees need materials in the right place and at the right time to effectively do their jobs. The ream of paper, the new uniform, the bus carburetor, or those rail spikes. We need it and we need it ASAP! It’s the job of MTS Stores to efficiently and economically provide the right materials when it is required and in the condition required.

More than 300,000 items are packed into three MTS warehouses at any given time for distribution to MTS employees.

“We interact with everybody,” said Assistant Manager of Stores Fred West, who started his career at MTS in 1981 in the Facilities Department. “It takes a special way of thinking to work in Stores,” added Materials Manager George Ritenour. “It’s not just handing out parts to employees. It’s technical, computer driven, and the terrific employees we have are really starting to excel with SAP.”

The January introduction of SAP (the all-encompassing online MTS resource tracker) made MTS Stores much more prevalent in the purchasing process. Previously, certain situations allowed departments to order materials directly to an office. Now, all materials must be received by Stores and then distributed to the department to better disperse, track and account for MTS inventory. “There’s lots of valuable information in SAP, you just need to know how to find it, added Storeroom Supervisor Leanne Aceron, an Army Veteran who joined the MTS team in August. “MTS has SAP video tutorials available, but sometimes it’s more effective to speak to someone about the process. Stores is here to help, so if employees have questions or want assistance with the SAP ordering process, just call or visit us.”

To handle the workload, the Stores team relies on 24 employees at three locations – the Kearny Mesa and Imperial Avenue bus divisions and in the Trolley Yard’s B Building. Some of the busiest hours for Stores are between 6:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. This is when maintenance teams are hard at work and need spare parts to get buses and Trolleys ready for the next service day. “Most people have been in Stores between 6-20 years. Employees like the work so they stick around,” said West, a 35-year vetran of MTS “Almost all of our employees have been promoted from within. Many started at MTS as flaggers or from the bus service lanes,” added Ritenour. “We have a few new employees too. And they are picking up the new system quick.”

As the inventory tracking technology improves for MTS, so do the parts MTS Stores manages. “We used to have huge pieces of equipment that are now the size of a chip,” said West. “Unfortunately, the price hasn’t shrunk with the size.” Much of the heavy equipment hasn’t shrunk either – like buses and Trolleys. And sometimes it can take up to year to order parts. Trolleys are unique, custom-built vehicles manufactured by Siemens in northern California. “The lead times to order parts can take 6-12 months,” said West. “When we start buying new trains for the Mid-Coast Trolley extension, we need to closely examine the parts situation to ensure spares can be acquired.” While the Trolley equipment is unique, most everything else takes about a week to order, ship and receive.

The top five items ordered are:

• Bottled Water – MTS orders 300 cases 10 times a year, which is 72,000 bottles water per year!
• Fuel Guzzlers - Filler Up! Some MTS buses and nonrevenue vehicles traveling all over the service territory take 1.3 million gallons of fuel!
• Sand – No, this isn’t for MTS beach parties. It actually is automatically dispersed between the rail and tire of a Trolley to create traction for emergency braking. MTS orders 210,000 lbs of sand every year!
• Paper Pushers – 1,500 employees with many documents to keep in order takes a lot of paper. Remember to use the blue recycle bins when discarding!
• Uniforms - Dressed for success! Many employees wear special uniforms to identify their role in our operations. Working on heavy machinery and outdoors can leave uniforms stained, ripped or worn out.

Regardless of the items, Stores helps employees acquire the materials needed to get the job done. It’s a heavy burden falling on the shoulders of one department to keep track of all the materials needed to make our agency successful. But the MTS Stores team is up to the challenge and ready to assist when employees call. 

Tips from Stores:

• Check Three: All three Stores (KMD, IAD and B Building) have many of the same materials. Employees can order items from any Stores location. “Employees can check the supply of an item at each location. All they need is the material number and SAP will show the supply at all three Stores,” said Ritenour.
• Ditch the Work Order: Save yourself a step. Administrative supplies such as paper, pens and note pads can be ordered without a work order through SAP.
• Quantity Counts: Don’t worry about mixing and matching from different Stores locations to meet the right quantity of an order. Work through one Stores location even if the system shows a particular Store doesn’t have enough supply and the supervisors will make sure the order is fulfilled.