The question, as to what is a proper storage place is one which must be worked out to fit conditions as found in the individual establishment. Generally speaking, in a manufacturing business, materials should be located as closely as possible to the departments in which they will be used. In a large plant it is usually necessary to have several storerooms to accommodate the various classes of material, and in order that they may be located conveniently. The question of proper storage is a vitally important one in every business, and especially so in a manufacturing plant. Ideal conditions are impossible to obtain in all plants, but the first consideration should be to have a definite storage place for every class of material, and to always keep the material in that especial place. Go into a plant having no well─defined system of storage, and you will find workmen spending more time looking for materials needed than would have been required to take the same material to a stockroom and withdraw it as needed. In trading businesses the necessity for systematic stock keeping has long been recognized. Wholesale houses have their stock arranged in departments and stored on different floors of the warehouse with special men in charge of stock keeping. A retailer, no matter whether he is operating a department store or dealing exclusively in one class of merchandise, has his goods arranged by departments. But in too many manufacturing plants the question of storage for raw material and supplies has received little consideration. A manufacturer will invest dollars in raw material and keep no record of it; yet the same man would regard as preposterous the suggestion that he should keep no record of cash. As a matter of fact, the material should be as well cared for, and as strictly accounted for, as cash. Every dollar's worth of material should be regarded in the same light as a dollar in gold.