Stock taking

paul.creedy · October 25, 2019, 08:41:59 AM

While I'm waiting for some pots to arrive for my next couple of builds I thought that knowing what bits and pieces I currently have might be a good idea

I'm sure that those of you who do a lot of this have things under control, but as all my stuff would fit in a couple of shoe boxes, things are tidy (all caps in one box, all resistors in another) but not complete as far as values go, nor separated enough to quickly see if I'm running low on anything.

So after an hour or two last night I now know what I have and haven't got and I can prep a Tayda order next time the discount code gets updated.

vigilante397 · October 25, 2019, 11:23:58 AM

I started a spreadsheet a few years ago to inventory all my bits. I decided it was time to get organized, as I have hundreds of bins (I think I'm up to 360 bins for through-hole and 256 for SMD), and it would save me money when ordering if I could just look at the spreadsheet and say "I have everything I need for the next build, I don't need to order anything."

Five minutes later I realized taking inventory was not very exciting, and to this day I order whatever I want whenever I want it and continue to waste money and time ordering things I already have and forgetting to order things I don't

paul.creedy · October 25, 2019, 01:39:24 PM

Thank goodness I didn't have to cope with 360 bins !

I spent an hour or so earlier writing out a list of parts for the next five pedals I'd like to build, and because I'm relatively new to all this there's nearly always something I don't have, but buying 20 of every available resistor, capacitor etc. seems a bit excessive at this point

Before buying things online really took off, I once phoned a company about some screws I was trying to track down - I was delighted to find they had exactly what I was after, but had to apologise to the very helpful lady on the phone once I was told their minimum order was 10,000 - I only wanted six . . .

vigilante397 · October 25, 2019, 03:46:03 PM

I never planned to get that many, it all happened so fast

The lab where I went to school was switching from 1/4W resistors to 1/2W (easier to breadboard) and were getting rid of all the 1/4W, and I was quick enough to grab 10,000 or so, in about 100 different values. Then I bought a "variety pack" of caps from China with a bunch of values, and between all those and the transistors, ICs, switches and whatnot, my garage quickly got out of hand.

I still plan to take inventory one of these days, it's an important thing to keep track of

KarenColumbo · October 25, 2019, 04:32:38 PM

There was a time when I just put some money into my hand and bought there:

https://www.nova-elektronik.de/compcards/index.php

At least resistors. They NEVER seem to run out.

paul.creedy · October 25, 2019, 05:22:07 PM

I've now listed all parts needed for the next five on one sheet and added stock numbers beside each item, now I've just got to make up a parts order for anything I don't have many, or none of.

This is an unprecedented level of organisation for me, so fingers crossed this doesn't result in something catastrophic happening

amptramp · October 25, 2019, 05:50:10 PM

I have this plastic cabinet with sets of drawers, each with 5 side by side compartments that I have arranged for all my resistors. Each drawer is a decade multiplier and three of the drawers are set up for 10 - 20, 21 - 49 and 50 - 99 and they are about equally filled in many of the decades. In some cases, I can use any value in a compartment because the values may not be critical.

The problem with a spreadsheet is that you have to remember to update it each time you add or take out a component.

vigilante397 · October 25, 2019, 06:34:56 PM

Quote from: amptramp on October 25, 2019, 05:50:10 PM
The problem with a spreadsheet is that you have to remember to update it each time you add or take out a component.

I build much less now than I used to, and I generally do one build at a time, so this part wouldn't be that bad. Tedious, sure, but not bad. In fact you could do a little programming in Excel to help make it more streamlined. And now it sounds like I'm talking myself into organizing mine. I should at least do my SMD bins, since I primarily use those now, and I have less components so it would go faster. Weekend project maybe

stallik · October 26, 2019, 05:16:34 AM

I wrote an app some time ago which allowed me to use a barcode reader to enter components into a database, print little barcode labels, reduce the stock numbers with a simple barcode scan, print inventory lists and check stock based on boms. I even had it working on my iPhone.

Regular pita for me and I soon reverted to starting a project, ordering what else I needed, realising I needed something else, waiting for the next order..

amptramp · October 26, 2019, 05:02:46 PM

I've got lots of organization. I just can't remember where I left it.

vigilante397 · November 01, 2019, 03:08:45 AM

Well I finally did it. I went through and took stock of my SMD parts. It took an hour or so, and I didn't count every single component in the passives (as that would have taken forever). I counted the first few bins so I got an idea what a given number of components looked like, then the rest I just wrote down a ball-park number (40, 10, 100, etc). Bigger components (ICs, tantalum caps, switches, boxes, etc) I got exact counts for.

I also had the idea to keep the stock sheet in google sheets so I can access it anywhere, as sometimes I need to make orders when I'm at work or traveling and don't have my home computer handy.

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Stock taking