Inventory Process

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Splat Space, by its nature and the good will of its members, can accumulate a lot of inventory. There is currently no real QA of this inventory or indeed any actual inventorying of this material. The process below seeks to rectify this.

Contents

Summary

The process is essentially an inventory and QA process, aiming to make sure all items brought into the space contribute to the space and its members, have utility, and do not unnecessarily tax the resource of the space (e.g. requires too many man hours to make useful or makes undue use of the physical limits available to the space).

Process

The process makes use of well established methods for things like code reviews in the open source world to insure that maximum value is obtained in materials brought to the space, and that a fair amount of knowledge about what exists is available to the membership.

Exceptions

There should, of course, be some room for exceptions in the inventory process. If someone is bringing in things specifically for their project and not for general use, they can skip inventory. Likewise, some items are just fine for us to get, and can be added to a whitelist.

Personal Projects

If someone is bringing in some materials specifically for a project, they can skip inventory review. The project should be moving along though--if it looks like junk is just accumulating and nothing is happening, it's reasonable for members to ask whether or not the materials can be cleared out. It's the responsibility of the materials' owner to make it clear to other members that the materials are part of an ongoing project.

Whitelist

Certain materials are obviously things we can use. Capacitors, resistors, power cords and so forth. As part of phasing this system in, the membership should develop a list of items that can simply be added to the space's reserves.

Three Bins

The process requires three 'bins', though it need not literally use bins.

Incoming

All new items for the space go into the Incoming bin. It could be a bit of wire someone thinks could be used, all the way to an unopened brand new macbook from the Apple store with a receipt. It doesn't matter, it goes in the incoming bin. Its addition to this bin is logged (either via hardcopy maintained on site or perhaps through a webapp). They then await Review.

Good

Items that are reviewed and found to be good for the space go into this bin. They are logged as good and await their New Home.

Bad

Items that are reviewed and found to be bad go into this bin. They are logged as bad and one week is available for the donor to take them out of the bin before they are disposed of.

Steps Involved

  • A donor brings in a new item for the space.
  • S/he puts into the Incoming bin, logs it, and awaits review.
  • Someone other than the donor reviews the item and puts into Good or Bad, and logs the decision for the item. Good items are logged as new in the inventory. The reviewer should notify the donor of the decision.
  • Items that are in Good need to find a New Home somewhere in the space.
    • Realistically, things may sit here for awhile, but any member can check the Good bin, find an item a home, and log the home in the Inventory.
  • Items that are Badd have one week from when the donor is notified before being thrown out.
    • Realistically, things might sit here longer than a week, but any member can check the log and the Bad bin, and throw out things over a week old.