Stock keeping

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Stock keeping or stockpiling (also stock formation ) describes the creation of useful stocks that are hoarded for a temporarily deferred need . Stock formation has always been peculiar to different animal species. An example of this is the saying “ hamster ” . Like the hamster, it is proven - from the Neolithic onwards - for humans to bridge seasonal supply bottlenecks in order to ensure their survival.

Development of human supplies

The human accumulation of fuel, of tools (e.g. arrowheads, needles) begins indefinitely early, on this side of the animal-human transition field. The following is primarily about stocking up on food.

The climate change at the end of the last ice age led to the northward shift of the vegetation belt, which encircles the hemispheres in a ring. The belts have a specific flora and flora-dependent large animal fauna that followed this shift. In Central Europe, tundra and taiga are disappearing and today's deciduous forest belt is emerging. At the same time, the large herds are leaving and are being replaced by animals that have been adapted to the forest. The nutritional basis of the people is changing, while the settlement density of around 0.1 people per km² in the redesigned natural areas remains. However, since the standing game is insufficient for food, both the European and the Levantine Mesolithic initially switched to fishing, which previously did not play a major role. The latter began, as noted in Ohalo II on the Sea of ​​Galilee , 20,000 years ago.

Those who, despite increased activity, had no chance of getting enough food to secure their survival for part of the year, like the hunters of the Levant , were forced to accumulate enough storable supplies in the remaining time that they could survive the periodic shortage. Since the use of animal resources is more in keeping with the hunter's nature, it can be assumed, and finds point in this direction, that the livestock farming resulting from domestication is the oldest form of storage. The animals, which were usually hunted and eaten immediately, were moved, supervised and stored alive. These processes represent the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution , which quickly continued with the initially regional domestication of wild grain and the stockpiling (up to the seeds) and completed the transition from the hunter to the shepherd and farmer cultures . This previously unknown stockpiling of food initiated a new era and two sustainable social practices that were perceived as revolutionary and spread worldwide. The first Neolithic had two main types of food. On the one hand, domesticated herd animals were kept alive by nomads. On the other hand, mature crops had to be transported, treated and stored by arable farmers.

Where in earlier centuries storage served to avoid starvation in times of need, the purpose of storage has changed today. In the past, stock keeping ensured that there was enough food available during the winter and also in the spring that was not available in the garden or in stores during this time. So it was vital. Nowadays all kinds of food are available all year round and the likelihood of starvation in our Central European society is extremely low. Nevertheless, keeping stocks in private households is still very important: on the one hand, it makes organization in your own household much easier, and on the other hand, organized stocks can save a lot of money. This aspect is becoming more and more important, especially in economically difficult times.

Early Stocking Techniques

Animal products

When storing food, which from the Neolithic onwards became a prerequisite for survival, conservation is of crucial importance. Fresh meat or meat preserved by smoking, salting or drying was the main diet of the people who stocked up animals by raising livestock. This livelihood ended as a result of a displacement process in nomadism. The processes keep the food in a condition that can be used in the medium term. Secondary animal products such as milk represent a second, as scientists from several disciplines are now assuming, used and permanently available almost from the beginning of domestication.

plants

The storage of grain requires a degree of dryness of> 85%. Grain had to be secured against rotting, fungal attack and mold. The drying of grain is guaranteed to this day by kilning . One such plant, which dates back to 9,500 BC. BC, could represent a structure that was excavated in Dhra , on the Lisan Peninsula east of the Dead Sea. Under the sloping floor on which the ears of corn were dried was a room that was heated to allow drying. This dry state had to be maintained for a very long time in the case of seed grain, so storage was of crucial importance. It also had to keep pests away. A modern finding is that powdered minerals are deadly to numerous insect pests. The instruction to store grain unthreshed and spread out on earth dust is a rule already known from biblical times and central stores are mentioned in the Joseph story. This is where the pottery, especially in the form of the later pithoi , does its job . Oil and must were also stored in them. Grain is a collective term for the "grass types" wheat, barley, rye, oats, maize, rice and millet. The species that were cultivated early include wheat (emmer and hard or durum wheat), barley and millet. The farmers supplemented their diet with rudimentary livestock farming, which in arid surroundings meant a risk that had to remain manageable, especially for the yields of their own fields.

Situation in Germany

In the GDR , especially in the production plants, decentralized and often not upwardly reported stocks of material were created for smooth production. But stocks of spare parts were also created to maintain machines and other aids that are important for production.

In the Federal Republic of Germany , the warehouses of the civil emergency reserve and the federal reserve store grain oats , rye , bread wheat , rice , peas , lentils and condensed milk , which are subject to special storage regulations and controls. The stocks are exchanged regularly, the reserves have to be sold after 10 years at the latest and new ones have to be stored. The Federal Republic of Germany also stocks gasoline , diesel and crude oil for emergencies . The economy of the Federal Republic of Germany is supposed to get by with these oil reserves for 90 days.

German citizens were supplied from the reserves when the Oder flood in 1997 and the Elbe flood in 2002 . The supplies were used for the first time after the Chernobyl disaster : in 1986, the federal government distributed 1,000 tons of milk powder to small children living in West Germany .

As part of self-protection , the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief lists the private stocking of food and water - in addition to other measures such as the creation of a medicine cabinet and a document folder with all important documents and the availability of a battery or battery-powered radio with reserve batteries - as essential elements personal emergency preparedness.

Stock keeping in private households

Storage in own cellar

Stocking in private households is the stocking up or holding of all kinds of food, regardless of whether it is fresh or preserved. In this sense, storage can also be understood as storage. However, the term storage rarely appears in connection with private households. And that even though keeping stocks is of enormous importance for housekeeping. When it comes to supplies, a basic distinction is made between dry storage, i.e. food that can be stored in storage cupboards at room temperature and food that needs to be cooled and that belongs in the refrigerator or freezer.

Cost of inventory

Stock keeping causes costs , on the one hand through capital commitment through the stored goods, on the other hand through the need for storage space (construction or rental costs) and through operating costs . The warehouse operation incurs costs through the personnel required for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning, pest control, maintenance, administration and inventory. Inventories also have to be valued and accounted for. Warehousing also means taking the risk of warehousing: the goods are being stored too long or out of date, the risk of natural hazards and theft, which grows with the length of the storage period. Accordingly, there is a sophisticated teaching in business administration for the evaluation of inventories (raw materials, semi-finished and finished products) and the endeavor to limit the average warehouse stocks to what is necessary by means of specified minimum and maximum stocks and good logistics and to shorten the average storage time as much as possible. Certain storage principles z. B. FIFO limit the risk of obsolescence or obsolescence.

Stock policy

Private storage policy depends on the expectations of the individual households. In the area of ​​rare damaging events, there is often a considerable lack of knowledge compared to e.g. B. government agencies ( cf. disaster control ). Since it has meanwhile become used to the fact that all required goods are available in stores, stocks are often no longer considered necessary. The generation of contemporary witnesses who still experienced an existential shortage in Central Europe (e.g. after the Second World War) and therefore tended to keep supplies from experience is becoming increasingly smaller. The shortage economy, as it led in the GDR , for example , that certain products were only rarely offered and therefore bought and stocked without an acute need, is usually considered to have been overcome.

State supply policy goes back to the first state founding and requires a central tax policy and accounting ( cf. the hydraulic companies ). It is known from the Old Testament that Joseph successfully advised the Egyptian pharaoh to stock up on supplies for the next seven lean years over the next seven years.

In market economies, official bodies rely very heavily on the fact that companies hold numerous stocks in the event of a disaster . This is limited by the fact that companies prefer to plan their deliveries in such a way that costly warehousing is superfluous and just-in-time production is possible. “Iron supplies” determine capital and are kept as small as possible. With certain supplies (food, medication, bandages, drinking water) this can lead to severe shortages in sudden emergencies.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.besserhaushalten.de/bevorratung/vorratshaltung.html
  2. ↑ a b Knut Karger: For emergencies . Documentary. Germany 2006. Premiere: International Documentary Film Festival Munich May 4-11, 2006
  3. ↑ Stay up to date in an emergency. Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, accessed on August 9, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Personal emergency preparedness. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014 ; accessed on August 30, 2016 .