Inventory Management

[woulfer]

What, if anything, do you guys use to manage your inventory? I'm having difficulty keeping track of everything I got. When it comes time to order, I'm ordering things I've already got on hand. Is there software available (freeware preferable) that works well for a small builder?

I'm amazed at how busy I've become in a short time at my "hobby". Any tips to streamline the "business" side of thngs would be much appreciated.

[tiges_ tendres]

i use excel, simple spreadsheet stuff.

I give myself a box for item name, item number with my favourite supplier, amount on hand, then i put a little box I leave blank.  This is so I can mark it with a number, or an x if that is a part i need.

I was thinking of doing this for effect projects too.  Making an all inclusive database available for download so that you could select a project, or number of projects, and the data sheet would pull up what parts you need, and how many.  I only wish I had the time.

I've lost count of the number of times I've ran out of 0.047 caps

[woulfer]

Yeah, that's what I'm putting together now. I'm hoping there is something better out there, but this is definately better than nothing!!

[ErikMiller]

For parts management, I have no electronic system; I just keep each item in its own bin and visually min-max it. When I'm down to my last dozen or so, I reorder.

This will only scale to a certain level, but it works fine for now. I seldom run out of stuff.

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

you mean you guys keep track? i just go and dig up what i need, when i need it. if i guess wrong, i re-order! 

good call on excel, though. that's a clever idea.

[Peter Snowberg]

I'm another that does inventory management purely with sight.

If entropy is the natural state of the universe, then to not sort things by entropy is unnatural. 

[Unbeliever]

Another 'visual' manager here. Plus, if you keep a decent selection of resistors and caps you can always use the values you have in series or parallel as a "I can't wait to get it working" substitute. This is also where understanding the circuit comes in handy, as often you can sub in different resistor values, especially, without changing the way the circuit operates (I'm thinking CV-type circuts here, with audio-processing circuits it can be a little more work to recalculate filter sections etc).