Guidelines on stock records for immunization programme - Path

2. Vaccine stock management
systems
2.1 The purpose of a stock management system
Stock management systems obtain and move supplies and equipment to the places
where they are needed in a timely fashion and at an optimum cost. Supplies usually
cannot go directly from their source to the end user; they frequently must be held in
the stores at some points along the way 3 .
There are two reasons for storing commodities:
• It is not logical and practical to send small quantities of commodities to lower
level facilities each time. Commodities should stay in a safe storage place until
they reach to a size that is efficient to transfer. On the other hand, it is not
possible to transfer needs of lower level facilities in single shipments,
since lower levels may not have enough storage capacity. Instead commodities
are stored in upper level stores and are sent in small batches through a
distribution system.
• A reasonable amount of safety stock is needed for unpredicted increases in
demand, emergencies, or transportation delays.
A stock management system must be simple. Its purpose is to move supplies, not to
create paperwork.
2.2 Decision making
The essential questions in understanding the structure of a stock management system
are: Who decides what (and when and how many) commodities move through a link
from one facility to another, and how does he/she decide?
The answer of who decides what to move, how many and when is explained in two
different well known types of stock management systems. These are:
• Allocation, or “push” systems
• Requisition, or “pull” systems
3
In this manual, vaccine stores are categorized as primary (principal or main store that receives
vaccine from the manufacturer) and intermediate (stores that receive vaccine from another store).
WHO/IVB/06.12
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