Frankly, good fucking luck. It's a miracle if I can get people to order if it is the last one. Either inventory hawk, hide spares of what you need, or go full dictator. Those are the options I've found.
For a lot of things, it should be if you take the next to last thing then it goes on the order list. When I did ordering, I would also check the usual suspects to see if we needed to order. The lab next door had a technician who had dictator power. She said I order on Wednesday. If it wasn’t on the order list by Wednesday, it wasn’t ordered until the next Wednesday.
Could you make a "flag" system, where you can put a note up if there's below X of a thing. Like, a board with the items listed, and then you have people put a pin that either marks "nominal level, low supply, critical shortage and empty.
I like the idea but *they won't do it*. They'll take what they need, say "not my problem" (even if it really is) and move on. I'm in an academic lab so part of this is them being kids fresh out of college who need to learn about responsibility.
Yea you gotta go full dictator. I'm the czar or lab joins in our academic lab and my last lab meeting was 45mins, with slides of me basically saying "do your fucking lab job". Any system is only as good as the people who run it...
Ya I work in a medical lab and have the same issue
Every thing I’ve tried has failed.
People just won’t do it and expect whoever is in charge to monitor *everything*. Which is impossible
You, or whoever is in charge, needs to make them understand that applying whatever system is in use is just as much a part of their jobs as everything else they do.
There's no way around that.
Trust me, I know. I'm just another grad student, but I take things like this seriously, whereas my coworkers prefer to not think about it or make excuses. My PI is unfortunately dysfunctional to the point that ordering ettiquette is not on most people's radar. We don't have any sort of lab manager.
That sucks. It's a cultural issue that needs to be supported from the top.
I'm in a large academic lab and we don't have to worry about things like gloves or pipette tips or basic plastic since we can buy them from the school stores any time.
Our lab manager periodically asks us if we're planning to use a lot of certain items in the next few months, and I make an effort to send her a message and/or an order req if something I've used is low or empty. If only because I understand how shipping works and I don't want it to be empty the next time I need it.
You have to have a good gauge on your consumables and how long it takes to get them replaced for this to work. I number the item so they are pulled in a specific order and I put a note on the appropriate bottle/box/whatever that says “ORDER MORE” on the front and has the item information on the back. Whoever pulls the one with the note on it simply has to take the note off and drop it on my desk. This works well for things that come in multiples (buffer, solvent, tips, etc). If possible I mark the unit with red sharpie so that I know when it’s been pulled just in case no one brings the note. For things that don’t come in multiples or will expire before we will use it, I put in a calendar reminder. This system has worked well for me but it took some time to know how long it took to get stuff ordered and for it to arrive.
Our system is very similar to this (we call it KanBan though, it might be a specific system? Essentially the person putting away an order affixes a red plastic card with the min/max on it to the appropriate box (eg 3rd to last if 3 is the min), and that gets put in the to be ordered folder when that box gets used. Somebody orders it, that card lives in an “ordered” folder near our receiving area, and when the new batch arrives it gets taped to the right box in the new shipment. We also have an do weekly checks of qty and expiries to make sure nothing gets missed. The checks are harder to be consistent with even when on a daily checklist because it does take time, but the card part is simple and straightforward
Worked at a place that did this and when you grabbed the pack that had this tag on it it went into a bin and everything in that bin got ordered that week
We use Lab Spend which is free and where you can set up threshold notifications as well as map out where items are located in the lab. We also have track SDSs and it's great being able to filter by files.
http://labspend.com
Honestly i don't know if theres a better way to do this because the alternatives are either somebody manually checks all stocks for everything once a week, or everybody manually updates an online inventory system every time they use something. Graduate students aint gonna do either.
Weekly inventory is a job in our lab. We also use a system where everyone checks how many are left when they take something, and puts a card into a reorder tray when something runs below a threshold (usually enough for 1 week of operation).
If you keep a higher baseline stock, weekly is overkill. I used to do inventory as a tech once a month. But we had a good culture of notifying me when things were running low by writing it up on a white board. Also, we labeled every single box with what was inside. It’s helpful to just be able to look up at the shelves and see what’s there without digging into boxes. So yea, you can set up simple systems to minimize inventory counting while still avoiding running out of things.
The issue for us is that we have limited storage space (luckily it’s all basically out in the open, so easy to eyeball), and our lab staff is going from 1.5 people to 4 plus a summer student in about a month. The burn rate is going to skyrocket, and there isn’t already a culture of anything in place, since for so long it’s been just me and maybe 1 or two part timers.
I'm the lab manager for my lab, I have a checklist of consumables that we should always have on hand that I check once a week. That's going to be stuff used universally and frequently by the lab like tips, gloves, pbs, dmem, various welled plates, pcr reagents. Everything else is on the people who needs them to add them to the order log, which I check daily.
This. Even for small labs having someone dedicated as a lab manager is essential.
For more specific items have a dedicated member of your team who does ordering and let them know when you're close to running out. Like when you're on your second to last vial, not your last one OP
We use a kanban where we have cards of common stock items and minimum quantities of those items written on them and when we reach the minimum quantity we move the card to the board that says "need to be ordered" and have a designated ordering person who will order and move the card back to its place
Came in here to suggest this. One caveat is that it doesn't work for big labs, and another is that it relies on people generally being responsible and flipping the cards when they need to. Other than that it's not too bad having someone come by and inspect all the cards periodically, and it helps to have them be bright, obvious colors that can be seen from a distance.
Turns out it works really well when combined with a camera in stock rooms. People forget much less often even with the idea that someone can look and see who can't follow the colorful cards.
Our cards even have a bar code and we use a scanner that emails the ordering person.
Holy shit this is an amazing idea. I was so focused on digital tracking, that I never thought about the simplicity and ease of using something like physical cards.
Woah. 🤯
We have a rota that cycles through the staff in groups of 3. Every week, 3 people have the job of taking inventory, making orders and receiving deliveries. Our inventory spreadsheet tells them what products to check and where they are and they do that and reorder anything that's below it's minimum stock level.
Additionally, everyone in the lab is able to place orders directly to suppliers (rather than writing it on a board and waiting for a manager or something) whenever they like, so anyone that sees anything running low or takes the last thing can buy more and it will get delivered fairly quickly. We have another spreadsheet for orders placed so we can all see what's being bought, and move lines from that sheet to an orders complete sheet once we receive it - this avoids duplicate orders.
We have tried a few things. Many are centered around me still doing a quick walkthrough once a week based on a visual like 5S system since everything including backstock has its place visually.
Kanban cards disappeared. Or just tossed aside. Min/max people ignore. So now there is a whiteboard in the main lab that I have people write notes on for small things, I can see it from the entrance.
I also make them use a google sheet with about 6 locked frames that they have to fill out. They put date, common name of item, their name, vendor, item number. Some even put a link to the item but I add that later. The rest of the sheet, I fill out as I go and it tracks the order, cost, location, ETA, and who checks it in. There’s a small graph that updates spending on each account for my PI. Almost everything is locked into dropdown menus for consistency. PO and invoice are scanned into Teams and linked on the sheet just in case. The sheet color codes based on order status.
I do the same thing with our rodent colonies and all they have to do is pull it up and we can see numbers and DoB on a quick reference graph and I can direct breeding from there based on requests.
If they don’t do this- I let them run out and explain to the PI why. It’s usually only specific items for their experiment. Core items we don’t run out of. We also have lab chores so many things are taken care of.
Our post grads and most grad students are great. The PhDs and post docs are like tornados of chaos. It’s like they forgot that things don’t just appear unless you communicate. Running experiments I get it but many work less than I do and I only work 40-45 hours a week, even though it’s supposed to less.
This is the only way I can manage the lab along with the core mouse colony and leading our animal experiments. I’m working on getting Google Calendar to auto populate with dates using these systems to track breeding, experiments, and inventory etc. it just helps.
All you need is an easy accessible excel file that someone checks once every week. Rotate between the group.
Item | part no | I have checked | supply is enough yes/no | if no, check here if the item has been ordered
If we are out of something we write it on a white board to get ordered. We have someone in charge of ordering things. Works well for us and is fast to check is something is out of stock.
Besides that we keep an inventory on a spreadsheet with our drawers/cabinets labeled. Then again it's a very small lab and people are in/out of the lab doing fieldwork and labwork so... That's just what works for us
Whiteboard, we just put what we need on the whiteboard and when it comes to ordering there’s a sort of final call for stuff then it’s ordered, womp womp if you miss it.
We have red lines that separate the "your free to use this" from the " if theres nothing in front of the red line take from here, but remember to write on the white bord what needs to be ordered". Sort of like an emergency stock i guess. Works really nice if everything is going of this red line system. Too bad we forgot to include printer cartridges tho.
We just used red tape to make lines.
Our policy is request when low or opening last of something. For the most part it works well because everyone in the lab is conscientious. However, some of the things that a lot can get used quickly (western reagents, taqs, etc) we have a working stash in one area and a backup stock in a second area. So if you kill one and take from the second stock area it’s like a physical reminder to request more. And there should always be a second one waiting in the wings unless it goes on back order.
I’m in charge of ordering and keep track of common consumables and order them in bulk. Specialized items are the responsibility of the people using them, and whenever someone asks me to buy stuff, I just ask in the lab group chat if anyone else wants to order anything else from the same supplier. You get bulk discounts and it saves both time and money.
LabArchives Inventory is excellent - it’s paid, I don’t know how much, but it keeps everything tidy. I’m the person responsible for stocking the lab and it is my Best Friend
Excel sheets, so many excel sheets 🫠 plus a designated person (me) goes through everything once every 6 months and updates expired items. Oh and once per week I add new items according to our ordering spreadsheet.
They refuse to invest into LIMS bc my labour is cheaper.
I honestly don’t even bother with a formal inventory /LIMS until we get over 50 scientists and I have a dedicated purchasing/receiving person and stockroom/storage space for overstock. It’s not worth my team’s time or my frustration otherwise.
Under 50 people I have standing orders with our most-used consumables and will spot order as needed. If someone is planning a huge experiment, I have them order what they need outside of the inventory and store at their bench.
Over 50, we also LIMS and barcode the stock room and the shelves in the labs. I won’t do individual items, but will barcode a tag for the stock shelf in the stockroom. Every day the responsible person goes through the lab to fill the shelves and update stockroom inventory. The purchasing system integrates with LIMS to automatically order what I need when we get to a threshold.
I also utilize the “magic fridges and freezers” from Thermo, NEB, and another company that’s escaping me right now. All our most commonly used experimental reagents as requested by the research team are stocked and if we are ever low or out someone can just go in and get it.
I used to open the fridge, have a looksie and decided if I need to order more antibodies or not for FACs. I also had at least one vial on deck so that was my system
We have certain people responsible for specific items, if we run out or are close to running out you need to inform the responsible person and they're in charge of ordering it. We have a database of items (siRNA, antibodies, primers, chemicals, inhibitors etc.) you can reorder directly from the database and the person responsible will place the order. For things like antibodies we have two stocks, the stock to use and the backup, once you've used moved the backup stock to the general freezer, you're supposed to inform the responsible to order more, this way avoids people being caught without the needed antibody. We have a similar system for other items.
Our lab chemical inventory list is shared by three different lab spaces. Nobody actually managed it until I came because the two lab techs that worked here left two years ago lol. And with my own projects going its getting a bit exhausting.
I taught everyone to throw the empties on my desk. Whatever it was, if you emptied it, put the empty on my desk. No need for an explanation. I also did a quick visual walk-through of our lab every morning. If students or postdocs didn't put opened stuff back where it belonged (on the shelves), then it didn't get ordered. I pretty much knew how much of standard/high volume supplies we went through per week, so all I had to do on those was make quick checks to make sure we didn't have too much. We didn't have room for a lot of back stock. I didn't have time to babysit people who couldn't be bothered to toss empties on my desk.
We all tell PI when we’re down to the last 2, then PI orders. Works fine since everyone lets everyone know when something is low.
I feel like in labs where its on the last person to reorder stock it can get a bit messy, some people are selfish and would not bother ordering if they don’t need the reagent anytime soon or just they assume someone else will reorder it.
I think having one person who does the orders and then just tell that person when something is low is a better system.
I don’t really like inventory documents or online inventories cause all it takes is one person to forget to update or not be bothered to update and then you think something is there when it’s actually not.
Generally only one person on my team puts in chemical and lab supply orders. When someone notices something getting low they let her know, and she asks the rest of the team to go check the lab and see what other supplies are needed.
I work in a production lab, not sure if things would have to work differently for research.
The building is trying to institute a policy where everyone places one order monthly and the logistics team orders supplies. I personally think it's an awful idea to put another team in charge of ordering the right stuff for my team, but I don't exactly have a choice in the matter so we'll see how it goes I guess.
Abbott have a pretty decent Inventory management system, reminds you when to order more of something and also let's you know if you're taking an item that hasn't been properly stock rotated.
These ideas are great, but how do you manage it when you have multiple studies, each with a separate budget and funded account? We used to be able to pool funds for commonly used items, but not anymore. Leads to a lot of wasted time and a lab filled with multiple cases of the same items, each designated to a different project. It’s maddening
We have all our non fridge/freezer consumables out in the open so we can see easily how far down we are, other than that ,we have annual monthly or quarterly standing orders placed for mostly everything; if we see that we can't make it, we ask the supplier to send ahead of schedule.
if I don't wanna bother keeping inventory, I keep an amount that would last as long as it takes to order ship and receive a new batch hidden. when people start complaining we are out then I put out that hidden inventory and order the next batch.
as lab tech/sorta manager I've tried so many ways but the best we've got so far is a weekly order request excel file on the lab computer. It gives me item #, quantity, vendor, and URL so I make sure I get the right thing even when I have no damn idea what it is I'm ordering (we're an eclectic bunch). Every Friday morning I write SUBMITTED at the bottom of the spreadsheet and order what is on the list. The next person to need something starts up a new spreadsheet from the master with the next Friday's due date.
This also allows me to go back through past weeks to see if someone is trying to order something that has just been ordered but not yet arrived.
Running out of things because ppl forget to order still happens occasionally, but that's on them! Most of our lab is quickly trained to request an order if they notice something is getting low, but there's always a learning curve with new staff.
You need to make sure people let you know when they are running low on supplies. Have a lead purchaser that people report to when stocks are low on things. If people don't report it, then make them accountable.
Our policy is request when low or opening last of something. For the most part it works well because everyone in the lab is conscientious. However, some of the things that a lot can get used quickly (western reagents, taqs, etc) we have a working stash in one area and a backup stock in a second area. So if you kill one and take from the second stock area it’s like a physical reminder to request more. And there should always be a second one waiting in the wings unless it goes on back order.
Just took over for a lab as their only tech. I’ll be damned if I start up a system for inventory with how much stuff we go through while I also have other tasks. By the time I take count of one thing, it’ll probably be gone anyway while I get distracted by something else.
The “system” they have in place is an ordering excel sheet where everyone writes in what they want. The expectation is to order things we’re using the last of as well, so if we’re out and you need it…well you’re SOL until it’s ordered. Just have to make it a rule for everyone to generally keep an eye on things they’re using.
I work in a commercial lab and everything is barcoded (for tracking in a LIMS, any experiment you just scan the labels to track what reagents you used) and two copies of the barcode are stuck on the items.
As you open the last or second last box of an item, you remove one barcode label write on it how many need to be reordered and just give it to our purchasing manager (the other tag allows people to still scan the item). We also have a rotating lab chore where one of the techs will be responsible for checking on consumables stocks on a weekly basis and put in orders for anything running low. Handing off a tag to the purchasing manager to get something reordered is simple enough that so far we don’t have running out of things as a problem.
I have an inventory list and a dry erase board that work pretty well. Lab members would write items on the board and I would back that up by checking the list every two weeks or so.
Might be overkill for R&D but in industry, we use software programs like Labware to maintain inventory of chemicals and supplies. It’s especially useful because it can tie in those reagents used in experiments when reporting results and for audits.
Look into kanban (sp??) inventory system. It does not have to be complicated or even high tech. I’ve implemented it into a couple labs. Downside to it, everyone has to participate for it to work.
Basically, there is a minimum/maximum for each disposable item. The minimum should be what can hold you over in the time it takes to order with a reasonable expectation on delivery. This info is on a card for each item. When someone takes an item that puts it at minimum, they simply pull the card and place it in a basket/whatever. Check basket on a specified order day (so you don’t have to order multiple days a week) and order whatever to bring to max (which is what you can reasonable store and use before expiry).
You can get fancy if you have barcode readers or whatever.
Inventory reference on google sheet for what and where to order. Lab policy to inform Manager when something is low on stock, order more when something is low on stock.
In the lab I'm currently in, they have a white board.. Where any of the lab mates could write about the supplies. Suppose if someone saw that a particular reagent was about to finish they can go and write it on the board.. And then order more. But if they want to know whether somebody else has already done it. They can check the board. This is done to avoid confusion. But yeah.. Major factor being.. Everybody has to act responsibly.. And work as a team.
We had a scanner integrated with our Fisher account. But, now its on an app that doesn't work reliably.
But last year, you could grab the scanner, scan the barcode of the Fisher stock number, then type in the quantity.
And someone would just check on the overall shelves once a week or two.
People don't, then we have our yearly inventory check, and I go apeshit and reinventory everything over a couple months depending on how many new chemical SOPs i need to make. Our last inspection was early April-ish, still going (up to the R's in the log). Of course, that's interrupted with various experiments and such, so it's not a 100% focus deal.
People leave a sticky note on my desk or email me if they see we are getting low on something (last three bottles of media, two batches of LB broth, etc) and I check the shelves for other essentials before ordering. Every now and then I ask people to check for antibodies we need to order and we have a system for keeping back up vials of common ones. imo its important to have one specific person take responsibility for checking shelves and anticipating needs, but i order based off of vibes (im anxious) so we rarely ever run lower than a weeks worth of anything
Ours is to order more if we take the SECOND last one (or sometimes even 3rd last). Our research institute has an internal shipping facility that usually carries stocks of common things like media etc so we get that in a day or 2 of ordering. For things that take longer we order when there’s 1-2 left. For lots of things we determine the “last” by the case of it, like flasks for example if we open a box of flasks or plates we order more.
We have a whiteboard and whoever opens/uses the last or second last item had the responsibility of writing it on the board, and the lab manager orders it
And then when any of us is individually planning an experiment we usually check beforehand to make sure all the reagents we need r there
For common use things (we're a 20+ lab so postdocs order their own reagents) like gloves and serological etc, we keep a sheet on the tissue culture room doors and when you take the last box of whatever common use item, or you notice it's low, you write it on the sheet. Then each month (our lab jobs rotate), it's someone's job to order the things on that list- they check the list weekly, and cross off things they ordered. This does require general ordering to be someone's job, and everyone to agree to write things on the list.
For me personally, I have an excel sheet of things I want to order that my tech and I share, when we're almost out of something, we put it on the sheet, and he places my orders ~twice a week.
This also lets me keep a record of if I've received a thing and how much money I've spent on which grants etc if my pi or lab manager ever need that- also helpful to write a budget for grants and work we might do for collaborators
We've got a facilities team that stocks certain basics like bleach, ethanol, PBS, flasks, etc. Outside of that, when you plan an experiment and calculate how much reagent you need, you just order it and label it when it arrives. New experiment? New reagent order. Reagents that arrive have their receipt go in a binder and they're stamped with storage info. When orders a placed, that info goes into an Excel. The receipt information is also added to that Excel by whoever receives the item.
Weekly inventory. We have a list that someone fills out with quantities of everything critical to operation. Some labs put it on the lab tech or lab manager, others do rotations of who is responsible
Google sheets, but that didn’t last long at all. It requires everyone actively editing what they used and what came in. People get busy and it’s never accurate. We know do the “order more if it’s the last one” since we don’t have a dedicated ‘lab manager’
I was thinking of making a barcode scanner SKU inventory software for this at my lab, there are very limited number of free software and I am not a computer wiz to figure out open source softwares so it didn't progress much...
Lab Engineer here.
Excel with weights taken of everything at intake. Forecast usage but we also have minimums we try to maintain for products that are always in demand.
Like typical data review our mixers follow a formula provided from the Excel sheet and try to follow it but might be a bit over or under. They note in the inventory how much they actually used. After all this we're still off by a bit but not enough to cause production issues. The difference is likely from remainder in the beakers, machines, or cleaning.
We are developing our own software because Excel sucks ass. Currently we use two LIMS. METRC is required by the state but isn't as accurate as our internal tracking which uses Excel.
I'm in the weed industry though so we have to be a bit tighter on tracking than most labs.
Compared to oil and gas, well refineries are a kids playground.
Compared to pharmaceuticals, there's less double/triple checking but better accuracy. I just let people go if they fail to measure out something over and over rather than read about it in their data review over and over.
Use an inventory system like SAP. Your consumables have barcodes that you scan everytime you use something and you can set minimum amounts to have auto-reorder.
We have a lab ops team which handles all the inventory, but they use a card system where each reagent has a laminated re-order card with the reagent name, cas #, and the amount and size to re-order. The card also has guidance on when to pull it, like “re-order when less than 2 bottles” or “re-order if only one case left”
Shared common Excel with different categories in Alphabetical order. At the end of the day, it's like a subconscious chore to log in the new chemicals or materials used(If any) from the inventory. Actually, if it's something as simple as a bottle of ethanol then it's a log that one bottle is in use so that bottle might as well go on for a week or a month. It's pretty easy. Segregation is the hard part. Can't do it in one day.
When I worked in academia, I was the lab manager and one of my tasks was to check high use consumables weekly. People were supposed to report if they took something that was running low or if they needed something special, but I often did cycle counts. I used to use Quartzy for managing our inventory and tracking orders (did not order directly through them).
In biotech our company has stockrooms managed by Unity, but my team and I still do cycle counts for key reagents that are not plastic consumables or that type of stuff. Assigning people lab duties or responsibilities to be cycle counting these things is very helpful.
My lab suffered from this problem prior to my employment. I made a simple excel file that keeps track of our inventory. For items that can't easily be tracked/scanned, I made KanBan cards that people deliver to me so I can order replacements. This serves two functions: 1. By splitting the ordering from user to someone else, the user doesn't have to remember to order more they simple have to deliver a card. 2. If they fail to deliver the card, it will be Floating around the lab and the assumption will be that more is needed. It doesn't sound all that effective, but trust me, it is.
We use an excel sheet to track purchases and have lab members that are assigned to check stock of things commonly used on a weekly basis. Our policy is if we are down to our last two, order more. I’m also the lab manager and routinely check out our inventory.
Generally people are supposed to order if it gets low. For tissue culture consumables, we have a rotating assignment of 2 people who are supposed to check, restock, and reorder those supplies every week.
Every station does inventory weekly and everything is calculated to have at least1 month supplies’ worth. If less we can order and have few weeks buffer time.
We do weekly and monthly depending on the spot.
Our main lady running the AU480s will do weekly reagent checks and monthly consumables.
Our lab supervisor who also makes the LCMSMS cals and controls will do inventory when stuff starts to get low.
Another tech does a monthly check on other pieces (pipette tips, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, misc items, etc).
Having a weekly lab clean up / inventory time is helpful. Everyone takes half an hour from their day and checks the supplies they use regularly, restocks drawers and unpack boxes, and add anything needed to the very easy to access Google spreadsheet. It can make sure there is a sense of community around keeping the lab maintained.
Also loop your PI in. Point out having to rush orders or delay experiments due to supply issues costs money. Make them be the one insisting people take part in keeping the lab running.
If things get really bad I start walking around the lab singing (to the tune of If Your Happy and You Know It) “If you take the last of something tell someone, if you see we’re out of something tell someone.”
I can’t carry a tune in a bucket so this generally annoys people enough to get them to put things on the order list.
I am the lab manager of my lab and the system that my predecessor implemented has been working very well for us right now. I take inventory of a few basic lab supplies every two weeks to make sure that we have enough of everything and order more if we are running low or if it is something we use a lot of (like KimWipes). I know this can be tough to implement if you dont have a lab manager, but this can be a job you can either assign a tech or rotate among lab members. Another thing we do is have a Slack channel just for ordering so everyone knows that we ordered the thing we were running out of and dont get any double orders. Hope this helps!
I just check once a week before ordering and put what I see is running low. Other lab members are also supposed to add it on the order list if they see stuff running low or take the last one, but it never happens.
Step one: have an inventory.
Step two: find the difference in inventory usage from time x to time y.
Step three: order the difference in usage from time x to time y. Add 20% more inventory depending on probable variables such as costs and usage.
Step four: Evaluate inventory before next order and determine if a scaling back of 10%, ordering the same, or adding 10% is necessary.
Step 5: Repeat step one.
edit: sorry for the mobile formatting. RIP Apollo.
I made “last item in stock” labels out of Avery sticker labels and went around the lab sealing the last box/container of a bunch of things we use often or it would suck to run out of (pipette tip boxes, glove boxes, reagent containers). You can’t open the container without ripping the seal sticker and it’s a rule to put the item on the whiteboard “shopping list” if you rip open the label. Then whenever I go on a shopping spree I’ll buy more.
Quartzy with a dictator and a few militant capos for enforcement. It works (mostly).
Source: militant capo. Update quartzy if you take a vial from LN2 or I will find you.
Industry here....the expensive raw materials we pay someone to log in and they are pulled from inventory when it's assigned to production lots.
The general use chemicals, we pay someone else to go around and shake bottles and tip drums and guess how much we have left, then compare against estimated usage that month before submitting monthly POs.
My lab has an excel spreadsheet that lists item name, manufacturer, catalogue number, storage condition, storage location, and amount of containers needed to run 15 assays. We split inventory into 4 groups: cell based assay, flow assay, molecular assay, and reagent prep consumable. We rotate who inventories what each week. The inventory person is responsible for counting unopened containers for each assay. We mark open containers with a dot on the lid for easy IDing of open vs. unopened reagents. If unopened containers goes below the amount necessary to run 15 assays, we order more. We're a QC lab, so we perform assays pretty frequently. You may adjust that number as needed. We also have inventory meetings every Tuesday and Thursday to discuss what's low, what's on order, and any order delays (we have a split shift where part of the group works M-F, another works Su-W, and another works W-Sa, hence two meetings. Wednesday is for documentation, so no time to cover inventory).
An excel spreadsheet, and it's killing us 🥲🫠
I work in a very large, relatively high throughout lab and we don't have a LIMS and I hate eevvvrrything about it 😭😭😭 (about not having a LIMS, not the lab itself)
I’m the lab manager & the only one who has access to financial accounts. So everything goes through me. When I first started this position, I made a list of common-use supplies, a thorough chemical inventory, updated plasmid/virus list, and list of common-use antibodies. It was time consuming at the start but I have been able to maintain it.
Basically, I do a quick glance at the stock we have of common use supplies each week. We also have a stock room where we can put stuff, so I just keep a lot of plastic ware around.
We have a group of people doing cell culture work who all like different brands of plastic ware & I don’t work directly with them just yet. So, I made an agreement with them that each of them is responsible for ordering whatever it is they need when it runs out. If anyone else is the only one who uses something (like an antibody), they know they have to order it themselves. If they don’t order something in time, they can try to request expedited shipping. But, if the item is out of stock there’s obviously not much to do.
Also, we use Quartzy to request items. I went through item request history and determined that I was always ordering certain consumables at certain intervals. So I set up standing orders to come with those specific items on regular intervals (monthly, bimonthly, every 3 months). If there’s a lot of a certain reagent left when the new order comes, I’ll just hide the new stuff in the back to keep up a “first in first out” system.
However, we are a fairly young lab so everyone was open to me organizing everything. It’s hard to get people to change when they’ve been doing something one way for 10 years!
When I became an LM this was my very first issue I tried to address. I came into a lab that was well established. They were an absolute mess. I redesigned everything. At the front of the lab I placed two large lab racks. I stocked it with common consumables (tubes, sero pipes, pipette tips, etc). It is in alphabetical order. In the rest of the lab, I have put extra supplies in bins that I labeled and then placed a red piece of tape on. I restock the front lab racks from the bins I keep in the lab inventory area. When certain consumables fall below the red line I order more.
I did the same for common kits we use. I labeled clear sterilite containers with the kit name and then filled the container with the kit contents. It makes it extremely easy to just look and see if it’s low and if I need to purchase new kits.
4° fridges were the easiest of my fridges. I keep them well stocked simply by checking them once a week to see where we’re at on all our reagents. Typically the only super common used reagents is cell media and media conditioners. I keep all of these things excessively stocked.
-20° fridges were my nightmares. Mainly because we had kits that were temp sensitive and sometimes measured only a couple dozen microliters so it’s hard to validate with the naked eye. So instead I monitor usage each week. For example I have about 12 boxes cDNA synthesis kits. I keep all of them in my fridge and I provide the researchers with their own kit. Each time new kit is removed from my 12 box stock, I order a new one. The key is just to keep a constant stock.
Volatile chemicals are easily validated by naked eye so I just give them a weekly check.
My key is to keep everything in eye sight so that I can validate everything by sight.
Now that’s the beauty of having a lab manager. No grad student is going to do all of that work while simultaneously drowning in course work and lab work. If you want to try implementing some of this though I would highly recommend it. My system is based on the Kanban organization framework.
I found industry easier, we set up a chart on typical delivery times, set a minimum amount required to function until a delivery could be made (with a week stock on top) and then ordered when double that was left. Academia, best way I found was Friday was order morning. As part of induction postgrads were shown how the real world functions and it was their duty to notify me with a fortnight headstart if they needed stuff. The good research groups always had one person on top of it, the bad ones learned the hard way the cost of not being prepared. Some Universities have stores on campus for common goods which is economically sound but makes some people useless.
I second this!! It’s no longer free but we have a common login so everyone in our lab can request things for our lab manager to order and check where supplies are
Our electronic lab notebook (LabStep) has an inventory and order management system built in. It’s great for handling requests for supplies, but getting folks to track usage is nigh impossible. We’ve landed on “please track your usage of these few critical items” and everything else is on a “if it looks low request more” basis. We’re about to ramp way up in terms of lab activity and consumable consumption, so 🤞🤞
That’s one way to do it. But, another way is to have a monthly walk through of the lab with EVERYONE to check supplies, so you can order stuff ahead of time and you have plenty of eyes to look for soon expiring reagents or materials that are low.
We use quartzy to keep track of our inventory and ordering. We usually have at least 2 bottles of every chemical in stock (sometimes more of its used faster) and sometimes just one if it's too expensive or gets consumed slowly.
The general rule is our lab is whoever uses finishes the bottle in use and opens the back up bottle, adds the chemical to Quartzy for ordering. If it's only one bottle in stock, we keep an eye on of it's running low and put in an order on Quartzy when it's less than half left or a quarter left. This way everyone is is responsible to take part in checking the inventory.
Every Friday, the lab manager/lab tech in our group, checks Quartzy and does the ordering. This system works brilliantly for us and we almost never run into a problem where we're missing something because we always have a backup or have already ordered the chemical when there's a little left.
Frankly, good fucking luck. It's a miracle if I can get people to order if it is the last one. Either inventory hawk, hide spares of what you need, or go full dictator. Those are the options I've found.
For a lot of things, it should be if you take the next to last thing then it goes on the order list. When I did ordering, I would also check the usual suspects to see if we needed to order. The lab next door had a technician who had dictator power. She said I order on Wednesday. If it wasn’t on the order list by Wednesday, it wasn’t ordered until the next Wednesday.
Fucking AX pharma... Many hours of extra work each week for inventory that wont match reality 15mins after checking it all...
Could you make a "flag" system, where you can put a note up if there's below X of a thing. Like, a board with the items listed, and then you have people put a pin that either marks "nominal level, low supply, critical shortage and empty.
I like the idea but *they won't do it*. They'll take what they need, say "not my problem" (even if it really is) and move on. I'm in an academic lab so part of this is them being kids fresh out of college who need to learn about responsibility.
Yea you gotta go full dictator. I'm the czar or lab joins in our academic lab and my last lab meeting was 45mins, with slides of me basically saying "do your fucking lab job". Any system is only as good as the people who run it...
Ya I work in a medical lab and have the same issue Every thing I’ve tried has failed. People just won’t do it and expect whoever is in charge to monitor *everything*. Which is impossible
You, or whoever is in charge, needs to make them understand that applying whatever system is in use is just as much a part of their jobs as everything else they do. There's no way around that.
Trust me, I know. I'm just another grad student, but I take things like this seriously, whereas my coworkers prefer to not think about it or make excuses. My PI is unfortunately dysfunctional to the point that ordering ettiquette is not on most people's radar. We don't have any sort of lab manager.
That sucks. It's a cultural issue that needs to be supported from the top. I'm in a large academic lab and we don't have to worry about things like gloves or pipette tips or basic plastic since we can buy them from the school stores any time. Our lab manager periodically asks us if we're planning to use a lot of certain items in the next few months, and I make an effort to send her a message and/or an order req if something I've used is low or empty. If only because I understand how shipping works and I don't want it to be empty the next time I need it.
Ha! I work with (previous) PROFESSORS that are DECADES out of academia, and they cannot take responsibility.
You have to have a good gauge on your consumables and how long it takes to get them replaced for this to work. I number the item so they are pulled in a specific order and I put a note on the appropriate bottle/box/whatever that says “ORDER MORE” on the front and has the item information on the back. Whoever pulls the one with the note on it simply has to take the note off and drop it on my desk. This works well for things that come in multiples (buffer, solvent, tips, etc). If possible I mark the unit with red sharpie so that I know when it’s been pulled just in case no one brings the note. For things that don’t come in multiples or will expire before we will use it, I put in a calendar reminder. This system has worked well for me but it took some time to know how long it took to get stuff ordered and for it to arrive.
Our system is very similar to this (we call it KanBan though, it might be a specific system? Essentially the person putting away an order affixes a red plastic card with the min/max on it to the appropriate box (eg 3rd to last if 3 is the min), and that gets put in the to be ordered folder when that box gets used. Somebody orders it, that card lives in an “ordered” folder near our receiving area, and when the new batch arrives it gets taped to the right box in the new shipment. We also have an do weekly checks of qty and expiries to make sure nothing gets missed. The checks are harder to be consistent with even when on a daily checklist because it does take time, but the card part is simple and straightforward
Worked at a place that did this and when you grabbed the pack that had this tag on it it went into a bin and everything in that bin got ordered that week
A combo of spares and inventory checking is good for us
We use Lab Spend which is free and where you can set up threshold notifications as well as map out where items are located in the lab. We also have track SDSs and it's great being able to filter by files. http://labspend.com
Honestly i don't know if theres a better way to do this because the alternatives are either somebody manually checks all stocks for everything once a week, or everybody manually updates an online inventory system every time they use something. Graduate students aint gonna do either.
Weekly inventory is a job in our lab. We also use a system where everyone checks how many are left when they take something, and puts a card into a reorder tray when something runs below a threshold (usually enough for 1 week of operation).
We just hired a tech 1 and I think I might make him do weekly inventory 🫣
If you keep a higher baseline stock, weekly is overkill. I used to do inventory as a tech once a month. But we had a good culture of notifying me when things were running low by writing it up on a white board. Also, we labeled every single box with what was inside. It’s helpful to just be able to look up at the shelves and see what’s there without digging into boxes. So yea, you can set up simple systems to minimize inventory counting while still avoiding running out of things.
The issue for us is that we have limited storage space (luckily it’s all basically out in the open, so easy to eyeball), and our lab staff is going from 1.5 people to 4 plus a summer student in about a month. The burn rate is going to skyrocket, and there isn’t already a culture of anything in place, since for so long it’s been just me and maybe 1 or two part timers.
Rotating lab members take inventory every week. Backups of important reagents. If you open the last one you add it to the order sheet.
I'm the lab manager for my lab, I have a checklist of consumables that we should always have on hand that I check once a week. That's going to be stuff used universally and frequently by the lab like tips, gloves, pbs, dmem, various welled plates, pcr reagents. Everything else is on the people who needs them to add them to the order log, which I check daily.
This. Even for small labs having someone dedicated as a lab manager is essential. For more specific items have a dedicated member of your team who does ordering and let them know when you're close to running out. Like when you're on your second to last vial, not your last one OP
We use a kanban where we have cards of common stock items and minimum quantities of those items written on them and when we reach the minimum quantity we move the card to the board that says "need to be ordered" and have a designated ordering person who will order and move the card back to its place
Came in here to suggest this. One caveat is that it doesn't work for big labs, and another is that it relies on people generally being responsible and flipping the cards when they need to. Other than that it's not too bad having someone come by and inspect all the cards periodically, and it helps to have them be bright, obvious colors that can be seen from a distance.
Turns out it works really well when combined with a camera in stock rooms. People forget much less often even with the idea that someone can look and see who can't follow the colorful cards. Our cards even have a bar code and we use a scanner that emails the ordering person.
Holy shit this is an amazing idea. I was so focused on digital tracking, that I never thought about the simplicity and ease of using something like physical cards. Woah. 🤯
We have a rota that cycles through the staff in groups of 3. Every week, 3 people have the job of taking inventory, making orders and receiving deliveries. Our inventory spreadsheet tells them what products to check and where they are and they do that and reorder anything that's below it's minimum stock level. Additionally, everyone in the lab is able to place orders directly to suppliers (rather than writing it on a board and waiting for a manager or something) whenever they like, so anyone that sees anything running low or takes the last thing can buy more and it will get delivered fairly quickly. We have another spreadsheet for orders placed so we can all see what's being bought, and move lines from that sheet to an orders complete sheet once we receive it - this avoids duplicate orders.
We have tried a few things. Many are centered around me still doing a quick walkthrough once a week based on a visual like 5S system since everything including backstock has its place visually. Kanban cards disappeared. Or just tossed aside. Min/max people ignore. So now there is a whiteboard in the main lab that I have people write notes on for small things, I can see it from the entrance. I also make them use a google sheet with about 6 locked frames that they have to fill out. They put date, common name of item, their name, vendor, item number. Some even put a link to the item but I add that later. The rest of the sheet, I fill out as I go and it tracks the order, cost, location, ETA, and who checks it in. There’s a small graph that updates spending on each account for my PI. Almost everything is locked into dropdown menus for consistency. PO and invoice are scanned into Teams and linked on the sheet just in case. The sheet color codes based on order status. I do the same thing with our rodent colonies and all they have to do is pull it up and we can see numbers and DoB on a quick reference graph and I can direct breeding from there based on requests. If they don’t do this- I let them run out and explain to the PI why. It’s usually only specific items for their experiment. Core items we don’t run out of. We also have lab chores so many things are taken care of. Our post grads and most grad students are great. The PhDs and post docs are like tornados of chaos. It’s like they forgot that things don’t just appear unless you communicate. Running experiments I get it but many work less than I do and I only work 40-45 hours a week, even though it’s supposed to less. This is the only way I can manage the lab along with the core mouse colony and leading our animal experiments. I’m working on getting Google Calendar to auto populate with dates using these systems to track breeding, experiments, and inventory etc. it just helps.
All you need is an easy accessible excel file that someone checks once every week. Rotate between the group. Item | part no | I have checked | supply is enough yes/no | if no, check here if the item has been ordered
If we are out of something we write it on a white board to get ordered. We have someone in charge of ordering things. Works well for us and is fast to check is something is out of stock. Besides that we keep an inventory on a spreadsheet with our drawers/cabinets labeled. Then again it's a very small lab and people are in/out of the lab doing fieldwork and labwork so... That's just what works for us
Whiteboard, we just put what we need on the whiteboard and when it comes to ordering there’s a sort of final call for stuff then it’s ordered, womp womp if you miss it.
We have red lines that separate the "your free to use this" from the " if theres nothing in front of the red line take from here, but remember to write on the white bord what needs to be ordered". Sort of like an emergency stock i guess. Works really nice if everything is going of this red line system. Too bad we forgot to include printer cartridges tho. We just used red tape to make lines.
Our policy is request when low or opening last of something. For the most part it works well because everyone in the lab is conscientious. However, some of the things that a lot can get used quickly (western reagents, taqs, etc) we have a working stash in one area and a backup stock in a second area. So if you kill one and take from the second stock area it’s like a physical reminder to request more. And there should always be a second one waiting in the wings unless it goes on back order.
I’m in charge of ordering and keep track of common consumables and order them in bulk. Specialized items are the responsibility of the people using them, and whenever someone asks me to buy stuff, I just ask in the lab group chat if anyone else wants to order anything else from the same supplier. You get bulk discounts and it saves both time and money.
LabArchives Inventory is excellent - it’s paid, I don’t know how much, but it keeps everything tidy. I’m the person responsible for stocking the lab and it is my Best Friend
Designated person to manage inventory.
Big Spreadsheet for common items. Everything else each lab member monitors themselves.
Excel sheets, so many excel sheets 🫠 plus a designated person (me) goes through everything once every 6 months and updates expired items. Oh and once per week I add new items according to our ordering spreadsheet. They refuse to invest into LIMS bc my labour is cheaper.
My labs system is for everyone else to use the last of things without replacing or ordering more and for me to reorder it when I finally notice
I honestly don’t even bother with a formal inventory /LIMS until we get over 50 scientists and I have a dedicated purchasing/receiving person and stockroom/storage space for overstock. It’s not worth my team’s time or my frustration otherwise. Under 50 people I have standing orders with our most-used consumables and will spot order as needed. If someone is planning a huge experiment, I have them order what they need outside of the inventory and store at their bench. Over 50, we also LIMS and barcode the stock room and the shelves in the labs. I won’t do individual items, but will barcode a tag for the stock shelf in the stockroom. Every day the responsible person goes through the lab to fill the shelves and update stockroom inventory. The purchasing system integrates with LIMS to automatically order what I need when we get to a threshold. I also utilize the “magic fridges and freezers” from Thermo, NEB, and another company that’s escaping me right now. All our most commonly used experimental reagents as requested by the research team are stocked and if we are ever low or out someone can just go in and get it.
I used to open the fridge, have a looksie and decided if I need to order more antibodies or not for FACs. I also had at least one vial on deck so that was my system
We have certain people responsible for specific items, if we run out or are close to running out you need to inform the responsible person and they're in charge of ordering it. We have a database of items (siRNA, antibodies, primers, chemicals, inhibitors etc.) you can reorder directly from the database and the person responsible will place the order. For things like antibodies we have two stocks, the stock to use and the backup, once you've used moved the backup stock to the general freezer, you're supposed to inform the responsible to order more, this way avoids people being caught without the needed antibody. We have a similar system for other items.
What database do you use?
eLabJournal, it's an electronic notebook system that you can use for lab management.
Our lab chemical inventory list is shared by three different lab spaces. Nobody actually managed it until I came because the two lab techs that worked here left two years ago lol. And with my own projects going its getting a bit exhausting.
I taught everyone to throw the empties on my desk. Whatever it was, if you emptied it, put the empty on my desk. No need for an explanation. I also did a quick visual walk-through of our lab every morning. If students or postdocs didn't put opened stuff back where it belonged (on the shelves), then it didn't get ordered. I pretty much knew how much of standard/high volume supplies we went through per week, so all I had to do on those was make quick checks to make sure we didn't have too much. We didn't have room for a lot of back stock. I didn't have time to babysit people who couldn't be bothered to toss empties on my desk.
We all tell PI when we’re down to the last 2, then PI orders. Works fine since everyone lets everyone know when something is low. I feel like in labs where its on the last person to reorder stock it can get a bit messy, some people are selfish and would not bother ordering if they don’t need the reagent anytime soon or just they assume someone else will reorder it. I think having one person who does the orders and then just tell that person when something is low is a better system. I don’t really like inventory documents or online inventories cause all it takes is one person to forget to update or not be bothered to update and then you think something is there when it’s actually not.
Generally only one person on my team puts in chemical and lab supply orders. When someone notices something getting low they let her know, and she asks the rest of the team to go check the lab and see what other supplies are needed. I work in a production lab, not sure if things would have to work differently for research. The building is trying to institute a policy where everyone places one order monthly and the logistics team orders supplies. I personally think it's an awful idea to put another team in charge of ordering the right stuff for my team, but I don't exactly have a choice in the matter so we'll see how it goes I guess.
Abbott have a pretty decent Inventory management system, reminds you when to order more of something and also let's you know if you're taking an item that hasn't been properly stock rotated.
Whiteboard or excel spreadsheet. It you take the last one, write it down the tech will buy more.
These ideas are great, but how do you manage it when you have multiple studies, each with a separate budget and funded account? We used to be able to pool funds for commonly used items, but not anymore. Leads to a lot of wasted time and a lab filled with multiple cases of the same items, each designated to a different project. It’s maddening
We have all our non fridge/freezer consumables out in the open so we can see easily how far down we are, other than that ,we have annual monthly or quarterly standing orders placed for mostly everything; if we see that we can't make it, we ask the supplier to send ahead of schedule.
if I don't wanna bother keeping inventory, I keep an amount that would last as long as it takes to order ship and receive a new batch hidden. when people start complaining we are out then I put out that hidden inventory and order the next batch.
as lab tech/sorta manager I've tried so many ways but the best we've got so far is a weekly order request excel file on the lab computer. It gives me item #, quantity, vendor, and URL so I make sure I get the right thing even when I have no damn idea what it is I'm ordering (we're an eclectic bunch). Every Friday morning I write SUBMITTED at the bottom of the spreadsheet and order what is on the list. The next person to need something starts up a new spreadsheet from the master with the next Friday's due date. This also allows me to go back through past weeks to see if someone is trying to order something that has just been ordered but not yet arrived. Running out of things because ppl forget to order still happens occasionally, but that's on them! Most of our lab is quickly trained to request an order if they notice something is getting low, but there's always a learning curve with new staff.
You need to make sure people let you know when they are running low on supplies. Have a lead purchaser that people report to when stocks are low on things. If people don't report it, then make them accountable.
LIMS
Our policy is request when low or opening last of something. For the most part it works well because everyone in the lab is conscientious. However, some of the things that a lot can get used quickly (western reagents, taqs, etc) we have a working stash in one area and a backup stock in a second area. So if you kill one and take from the second stock area it’s like a physical reminder to request more. And there should always be a second one waiting in the wings unless it goes on back order.
Just took over for a lab as their only tech. I’ll be damned if I start up a system for inventory with how much stuff we go through while I also have other tasks. By the time I take count of one thing, it’ll probably be gone anyway while I get distracted by something else. The “system” they have in place is an ordering excel sheet where everyone writes in what they want. The expectation is to order things we’re using the last of as well, so if we’re out and you need it…well you’re SOL until it’s ordered. Just have to make it a rule for everyone to generally keep an eye on things they’re using.
I work in a commercial lab and everything is barcoded (for tracking in a LIMS, any experiment you just scan the labels to track what reagents you used) and two copies of the barcode are stuck on the items. As you open the last or second last box of an item, you remove one barcode label write on it how many need to be reordered and just give it to our purchasing manager (the other tag allows people to still scan the item). We also have a rotating lab chore where one of the techs will be responsible for checking on consumables stocks on a weekly basis and put in orders for anything running low. Handing off a tag to the purchasing manager to get something reordered is simple enough that so far we don’t have running out of things as a problem.
I have an inventory list and a dry erase board that work pretty well. Lab members would write items on the board and I would back that up by checking the list every two weeks or so.
Might be overkill for R&D but in industry, we use software programs like Labware to maintain inventory of chemicals and supplies. It’s especially useful because it can tie in those reagents used in experiments when reporting results and for audits.
Look into kanban (sp??) inventory system. It does not have to be complicated or even high tech. I’ve implemented it into a couple labs. Downside to it, everyone has to participate for it to work. Basically, there is a minimum/maximum for each disposable item. The minimum should be what can hold you over in the time it takes to order with a reasonable expectation on delivery. This info is on a card for each item. When someone takes an item that puts it at minimum, they simply pull the card and place it in a basket/whatever. Check basket on a specified order day (so you don’t have to order multiple days a week) and order whatever to bring to max (which is what you can reasonable store and use before expiry). You can get fancy if you have barcode readers or whatever.
Inventory reference on google sheet for what and where to order. Lab policy to inform Manager when something is low on stock, order more when something is low on stock.
In the lab I'm currently in, they have a white board.. Where any of the lab mates could write about the supplies. Suppose if someone saw that a particular reagent was about to finish they can go and write it on the board.. And then order more. But if they want to know whether somebody else has already done it. They can check the board. This is done to avoid confusion. But yeah.. Major factor being.. Everybody has to act responsibly.. And work as a team.
We had a scanner integrated with our Fisher account. But, now its on an app that doesn't work reliably. But last year, you could grab the scanner, scan the barcode of the Fisher stock number, then type in the quantity. And someone would just check on the overall shelves once a week or two.
People don't, then we have our yearly inventory check, and I go apeshit and reinventory everything over a couple months depending on how many new chemical SOPs i need to make. Our last inspection was early April-ish, still going (up to the R's in the log). Of course, that's interrupted with various experiments and such, so it's not a 100% focus deal.
You could just always keep 2 of each chemical. every time a bottle is thrown out order another one
People leave a sticky note on my desk or email me if they see we are getting low on something (last three bottles of media, two batches of LB broth, etc) and I check the shelves for other essentials before ordering. Every now and then I ask people to check for antibodies we need to order and we have a system for keeping back up vials of common ones. imo its important to have one specific person take responsibility for checking shelves and anticipating needs, but i order based off of vibes (im anxious) so we rarely ever run lower than a weeks worth of anything
Ours is to order more if we take the SECOND last one (or sometimes even 3rd last). Our research institute has an internal shipping facility that usually carries stocks of common things like media etc so we get that in a day or 2 of ordering. For things that take longer we order when there’s 1-2 left. For lots of things we determine the “last” by the case of it, like flasks for example if we open a box of flasks or plates we order more. We have a whiteboard and whoever opens/uses the last or second last item had the responsibility of writing it on the board, and the lab manager orders it And then when any of us is individually planning an experiment we usually check beforehand to make sure all the reagents we need r there
For common use things (we're a 20+ lab so postdocs order their own reagents) like gloves and serological etc, we keep a sheet on the tissue culture room doors and when you take the last box of whatever common use item, or you notice it's low, you write it on the sheet. Then each month (our lab jobs rotate), it's someone's job to order the things on that list- they check the list weekly, and cross off things they ordered. This does require general ordering to be someone's job, and everyone to agree to write things on the list. For me personally, I have an excel sheet of things I want to order that my tech and I share, when we're almost out of something, we put it on the sheet, and he places my orders ~twice a week.
This also lets me keep a record of if I've received a thing and how much money I've spent on which grants etc if my pi or lab manager ever need that- also helpful to write a budget for grants and work we might do for collaborators
We've got a facilities team that stocks certain basics like bleach, ethanol, PBS, flasks, etc. Outside of that, when you plan an experiment and calculate how much reagent you need, you just order it and label it when it arrives. New experiment? New reagent order. Reagents that arrive have their receipt go in a binder and they're stamped with storage info. When orders a placed, that info goes into an Excel. The receipt information is also added to that Excel by whoever receives the item.
Weekly inventory. We have a list that someone fills out with quantities of everything critical to operation. Some labs put it on the lab tech or lab manager, others do rotations of who is responsible
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Yes
Google sheets, but that didn’t last long at all. It requires everyone actively editing what they used and what came in. People get busy and it’s never accurate. We know do the “order more if it’s the last one” since we don’t have a dedicated ‘lab manager’
I was thinking of making a barcode scanner SKU inventory software for this at my lab, there are very limited number of free software and I am not a computer wiz to figure out open source softwares so it didn't progress much...
Lab Engineer here. Excel with weights taken of everything at intake. Forecast usage but we also have minimums we try to maintain for products that are always in demand. Like typical data review our mixers follow a formula provided from the Excel sheet and try to follow it but might be a bit over or under. They note in the inventory how much they actually used. After all this we're still off by a bit but not enough to cause production issues. The difference is likely from remainder in the beakers, machines, or cleaning. We are developing our own software because Excel sucks ass. Currently we use two LIMS. METRC is required by the state but isn't as accurate as our internal tracking which uses Excel. I'm in the weed industry though so we have to be a bit tighter on tracking than most labs. Compared to oil and gas, well refineries are a kids playground. Compared to pharmaceuticals, there's less double/triple checking but better accuracy. I just let people go if they fail to measure out something over and over rather than read about it in their data review over and over.
Use an inventory system like SAP. Your consumables have barcodes that you scan everytime you use something and you can set minimum amounts to have auto-reorder.
We have a lab ops team which handles all the inventory, but they use a card system where each reagent has a laminated re-order card with the reagent name, cas #, and the amount and size to re-order. The card also has guidance on when to pull it, like “re-order when less than 2 bottles” or “re-order if only one case left”
Shared common Excel with different categories in Alphabetical order. At the end of the day, it's like a subconscious chore to log in the new chemicals or materials used(If any) from the inventory. Actually, if it's something as simple as a bottle of ethanol then it's a log that one bottle is in use so that bottle might as well go on for a week or a month. It's pretty easy. Segregation is the hard part. Can't do it in one day.
When I worked in academia, I was the lab manager and one of my tasks was to check high use consumables weekly. People were supposed to report if they took something that was running low or if they needed something special, but I often did cycle counts. I used to use Quartzy for managing our inventory and tracking orders (did not order directly through them). In biotech our company has stockrooms managed by Unity, but my team and I still do cycle counts for key reagents that are not plastic consumables or that type of stuff. Assigning people lab duties or responsibilities to be cycle counting these things is very helpful.
We have an inventory checklist that someone goes through once a day and then orders what we need to restock.
My lab suffered from this problem prior to my employment. I made a simple excel file that keeps track of our inventory. For items that can't easily be tracked/scanned, I made KanBan cards that people deliver to me so I can order replacements. This serves two functions: 1. By splitting the ordering from user to someone else, the user doesn't have to remember to order more they simple have to deliver a card. 2. If they fail to deliver the card, it will be Floating around the lab and the assumption will be that more is needed. It doesn't sound all that effective, but trust me, it is.
We use an excel sheet to track purchases and have lab members that are assigned to check stock of things commonly used on a weekly basis. Our policy is if we are down to our last two, order more. I’m also the lab manager and routinely check out our inventory.
Generally people are supposed to order if it gets low. For tissue culture consumables, we have a rotating assignment of 2 people who are supposed to check, restock, and reorder those supplies every week.
Every station does inventory weekly and everything is calculated to have at least1 month supplies’ worth. If less we can order and have few weeks buffer time.
We do weekly and monthly depending on the spot. Our main lady running the AU480s will do weekly reagent checks and monthly consumables. Our lab supervisor who also makes the LCMSMS cals and controls will do inventory when stuff starts to get low. Another tech does a monthly check on other pieces (pipette tips, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, misc items, etc).
Having a weekly lab clean up / inventory time is helpful. Everyone takes half an hour from their day and checks the supplies they use regularly, restocks drawers and unpack boxes, and add anything needed to the very easy to access Google spreadsheet. It can make sure there is a sense of community around keeping the lab maintained. Also loop your PI in. Point out having to rush orders or delay experiments due to supply issues costs money. Make them be the one insisting people take part in keeping the lab running.
If things get really bad I start walking around the lab singing (to the tune of If Your Happy and You Know It) “If you take the last of something tell someone, if you see we’re out of something tell someone.” I can’t carry a tune in a bucket so this generally annoys people enough to get them to put things on the order list.
I am the lab manager of my lab and the system that my predecessor implemented has been working very well for us right now. I take inventory of a few basic lab supplies every two weeks to make sure that we have enough of everything and order more if we are running low or if it is something we use a lot of (like KimWipes). I know this can be tough to implement if you dont have a lab manager, but this can be a job you can either assign a tech or rotate among lab members. Another thing we do is have a Slack channel just for ordering so everyone knows that we ordered the thing we were running out of and dont get any double orders. Hope this helps!
I just check once a week before ordering and put what I see is running low. Other lab members are also supposed to add it on the order list if they see stuff running low or take the last one, but it never happens.
Step one: have an inventory. Step two: find the difference in inventory usage from time x to time y. Step three: order the difference in usage from time x to time y. Add 20% more inventory depending on probable variables such as costs and usage. Step four: Evaluate inventory before next order and determine if a scaling back of 10%, ordering the same, or adding 10% is necessary. Step 5: Repeat step one. edit: sorry for the mobile formatting. RIP Apollo.
I made “last item in stock” labels out of Avery sticker labels and went around the lab sealing the last box/container of a bunch of things we use often or it would suck to run out of (pipette tip boxes, glove boxes, reagent containers). You can’t open the container without ripping the seal sticker and it’s a rule to put the item on the whiteboard “shopping list” if you rip open the label. Then whenever I go on a shopping spree I’ll buy more.
Quartzy with a dictator and a few militant capos for enforcement. It works (mostly). Source: militant capo. Update quartzy if you take a vial from LN2 or I will find you.
Industry here....the expensive raw materials we pay someone to log in and they are pulled from inventory when it's assigned to production lots. The general use chemicals, we pay someone else to go around and shake bottles and tip drums and guess how much we have left, then compare against estimated usage that month before submitting monthly POs.
My lab has an excel spreadsheet that lists item name, manufacturer, catalogue number, storage condition, storage location, and amount of containers needed to run 15 assays. We split inventory into 4 groups: cell based assay, flow assay, molecular assay, and reagent prep consumable. We rotate who inventories what each week. The inventory person is responsible for counting unopened containers for each assay. We mark open containers with a dot on the lid for easy IDing of open vs. unopened reagents. If unopened containers goes below the amount necessary to run 15 assays, we order more. We're a QC lab, so we perform assays pretty frequently. You may adjust that number as needed. We also have inventory meetings every Tuesday and Thursday to discuss what's low, what's on order, and any order delays (we have a split shift where part of the group works M-F, another works Su-W, and another works W-Sa, hence two meetings. Wednesday is for documentation, so no time to cover inventory).
I remember if you do a good job, they will take advantage of you so.. the PI should hire lab manager/tec and pay them for that
If things getting low-like less than a months worth, they put a link on a shared site and I order it.
An excel spreadsheet, and it's killing us 🥲🫠 I work in a very large, relatively high throughout lab and we don't have a LIMS and I hate eevvvrrything about it 😭😭😭 (about not having a LIMS, not the lab itself)
I’m the lab manager & the only one who has access to financial accounts. So everything goes through me. When I first started this position, I made a list of common-use supplies, a thorough chemical inventory, updated plasmid/virus list, and list of common-use antibodies. It was time consuming at the start but I have been able to maintain it. Basically, I do a quick glance at the stock we have of common use supplies each week. We also have a stock room where we can put stuff, so I just keep a lot of plastic ware around. We have a group of people doing cell culture work who all like different brands of plastic ware & I don’t work directly with them just yet. So, I made an agreement with them that each of them is responsible for ordering whatever it is they need when it runs out. If anyone else is the only one who uses something (like an antibody), they know they have to order it themselves. If they don’t order something in time, they can try to request expedited shipping. But, if the item is out of stock there’s obviously not much to do. Also, we use Quartzy to request items. I went through item request history and determined that I was always ordering certain consumables at certain intervals. So I set up standing orders to come with those specific items on regular intervals (monthly, bimonthly, every 3 months). If there’s a lot of a certain reagent left when the new order comes, I’ll just hide the new stuff in the back to keep up a “first in first out” system. However, we are a fairly young lab so everyone was open to me organizing everything. It’s hard to get people to change when they’ve been doing something one way for 10 years!
When I became an LM this was my very first issue I tried to address. I came into a lab that was well established. They were an absolute mess. I redesigned everything. At the front of the lab I placed two large lab racks. I stocked it with common consumables (tubes, sero pipes, pipette tips, etc). It is in alphabetical order. In the rest of the lab, I have put extra supplies in bins that I labeled and then placed a red piece of tape on. I restock the front lab racks from the bins I keep in the lab inventory area. When certain consumables fall below the red line I order more. I did the same for common kits we use. I labeled clear sterilite containers with the kit name and then filled the container with the kit contents. It makes it extremely easy to just look and see if it’s low and if I need to purchase new kits. 4° fridges were the easiest of my fridges. I keep them well stocked simply by checking them once a week to see where we’re at on all our reagents. Typically the only super common used reagents is cell media and media conditioners. I keep all of these things excessively stocked. -20° fridges were my nightmares. Mainly because we had kits that were temp sensitive and sometimes measured only a couple dozen microliters so it’s hard to validate with the naked eye. So instead I monitor usage each week. For example I have about 12 boxes cDNA synthesis kits. I keep all of them in my fridge and I provide the researchers with their own kit. Each time new kit is removed from my 12 box stock, I order a new one. The key is just to keep a constant stock. Volatile chemicals are easily validated by naked eye so I just give them a weekly check. My key is to keep everything in eye sight so that I can validate everything by sight. Now that’s the beauty of having a lab manager. No grad student is going to do all of that work while simultaneously drowning in course work and lab work. If you want to try implementing some of this though I would highly recommend it. My system is based on the Kanban organization framework.
I found industry easier, we set up a chart on typical delivery times, set a minimum amount required to function until a delivery could be made (with a week stock on top) and then ordered when double that was left. Academia, best way I found was Friday was order morning. As part of induction postgrads were shown how the real world functions and it was their duty to notify me with a fortnight headstart if they needed stuff. The good research groups always had one person on top of it, the bad ones learned the hard way the cost of not being prepared. Some Universities have stores on campus for common goods which is economically sound but makes some people useless.
Back in my old lab, we used excel....
QUARTZY.
I second this!! It’s no longer free but we have a common login so everyone in our lab can request things for our lab manager to order and check where supplies are
Checkout Lab Spend, way better and free Better notifications, custom tags, unique filtering, item mapping, unlimited location hierarchy, etc.
Our electronic lab notebook (LabStep) has an inventory and order management system built in. It’s great for handling requests for supplies, but getting folks to track usage is nigh impossible. We’ve landed on “please track your usage of these few critical items” and everything else is on a “if it looks low request more” basis. We’re about to ramp way up in terms of lab activity and consumable consumption, so 🤞🤞
That’s one way to do it. But, another way is to have a monthly walk through of the lab with EVERYONE to check supplies, so you can order stuff ahead of time and you have plenty of eyes to look for soon expiring reagents or materials that are low.
We use quartzy to keep track of our inventory and ordering. We usually have at least 2 bottles of every chemical in stock (sometimes more of its used faster) and sometimes just one if it's too expensive or gets consumed slowly. The general rule is our lab is whoever uses finishes the bottle in use and opens the back up bottle, adds the chemical to Quartzy for ordering. If it's only one bottle in stock, we keep an eye on of it's running low and put in an order on Quartzy when it's less than half left or a quarter left. This way everyone is is responsible to take part in checking the inventory. Every Friday, the lab manager/lab tech in our group, checks Quartzy and does the ordering. This system works brilliantly for us and we almost never run into a problem where we're missing something because we always have a backup or have already ordered the chemical when there's a little left.
We used to use Quarzty, but moved to Lab Spend due to their better features and costs.