I'll get back to you on this one, 'tis late, well for me anyway...

more on the 'morrow

21:45 by my reckoning.

Don't worry, Neil will be back on here soon (following his nap). 14:45 in Jeddah.

And, lastly, less anyone gets the idea that such lovely folk as those we have mentioned are found only in the UK or Oz, why not checkout these as well:-

Ah beng (Singapore/Malaysia)
Bogan (Australia and New Zealand)
Chav (England)
Dres (Poland)
Flaite (Chile)
Guna or Mitra (Portugal)
Jejemon (Philippines)
Naco (Mexico)
Ned (Scotland)
Skanger (Ireland)
Spide or Millie (Northern Ireland)
White Trash (United States)

... to name but a few. Oh, Brave New World!

Meanwhile (for anyone who may be interested), the latest revision of the famous TaskMaster program is available for download here.

As always, if you download it and give it a go, I shall be interested to receive feedback, bug reports, and suggestions for futher development etc.

Having been involved recently in a parts stock-taking exercise, I came to the realisation (somewhat belatedly, let it be said) that stock-numbered items can be located in more that one location (that is, within any given "enterprise"*).

So I shall have to think about adding (yet) another database related to the main stock numbers datafile, listing alternative locations in my usual style:-

Store (place, location)
Row
Rack
Shelf
Bin

Obviously, in cases where Store is "Tech's car", the Row, Rack etc. will not apply. So I may give a bit of thought to adding a Tub (and/or Box or Kit) field as well.

* Oh yes, I can do Baboon Speak with the best of 'em!

We use the top level of a similar structure as "stock room" however a stock room can itself be defined by a car rego number, a hospital workshop or indeed a regional office. From there down a similar pattern is followed of shelf/rack/bin/etc if that is appropriate.

The trick, of course, once the system is set up is actually using it and getting everyone to keep it up to date. If you crack that particular problem please let me know the details.

Thanks for that feedback, Dave.

As may be well known (in some quarters, at least), my system allows the user to set up his (her) own field labels (Stock Room, Location ... or Store?), as it strives to be universally applicable.

But (in general) Store->Row->Rack->Shelf->Bin has always worked well enough. For me, at least.

Regarding your second point:- yes, easy enough when we are talking about a single tech (eg, myself, in my preferred mode of working) ... but, when others are involved - that's where "leadership" comes into play. Threats, appeals, cajoling, cussing ... whatever it takes!

When I'm in charge (and I'm not, these days), I have found that in cases of "poor" accountability (husbandry, whatever) in terms of parts usage, tools and test equipment held against signature, etc. - hitting guys in the pocket usually gets them to ... er, buck up a bit!

But having someone independently carry out a rolling or periodic physical stock-take helps. One metaphor that I use is to have folk imagine piles of twenty pound (dollars, Dong ... whatever) notes piled up in those stock bins (and then imagining those same amounts deducted from their wage packets).

On a personal note, these last seven years has seen me having to, shall we say, "fit in" with the policies and procedures (if, indeed, such grand terminology can be applied without blushes) of others. In terms of stock control (let's concentrate on that) these have ranged from Poor to ... umm, Pathetic. To be honest (and as others in similar circumstances must have found), it has not been easy to regress into "systems" far worse than those I was using twenty-odd years ago! The "answer" here, I have found, is to make an attempt to win over co-workers (and, yes, that has failed, by and large, in every case) and then to (shrug, and) simply carry on, working as far as possible within my own little bubble, making improvements as I go along, as time allows. What happens when I leave? Frankly, should I care?

Geoff, we downloaded 'maintenance parts bin' from 'freedownloadcentre' excellent software to track spare parts, however without a dedicated 'clerk' keeping the parts up to date can be a hassle. I am lucky here that I have a lot of very responsible techs who take pride in their work.

Hello Neil.

Yes. That one looks alright. Notice, however, that it is shareware on a 15-day trial. Let's hope that it gets downloaded by anyone else who may be interested.

Meanwhile, more on "last seven years experiences":- many places I have been have spent £££ plenty on "all singing, all dancing" systems - and yet still failed to use them effectively (using, of course, all the usual excuses). Many [censored] stock-control modules have been tolerated because they were supposed to be able to link in to other [censored] systems - "business management", "asset management", "customer management" ... and all the rest.

[censored] piled upon [censored], I'm afraid to say.



Yes ... that's the Real Answer. As it always has been.

Now, I fear I may regret asking this but.........

HM Armed Forces would, I would imagine, have a very strict system of stock control (not that a few guns don't go awol occasionally ) so how is that managed? Perhaps there are lessons to be learn there 'though the idea of the "guard house" may not fly in the NHS or else where.

Stock control is stock control. You either do it (as you would expect, in HM Forces, for example) ... or you don't. I'll leave you all to provide your own examples of those in the second category.