We have too much stuff. All Storage areas a full. This makes it hard to organise anything as there is no space to move stuff to. Parts for Specific Equipment Sometimes we work on a particular model of equipement repeatedly. This is good as it allows us to become more efficient by regularly reusing - knowledge of the item - A store of specific parts - build a collection of test harnesses - Custom made production tools This can be an issue when the item under test becomes less common though as we need to adjust the allocation of storage space. In order to do this we need to make decisions around - Can we reduce the amount of space required to hold the stuff - Should general Tactics for winding down a repeat item - Reorganise the kept stocks - PCBs - Throw out irrepairable PCBs. - Try to keep a small number of each type of board. - It is especially valuable to mark any known good items. - Components - Make sure there is a list of valuable stock items for this item - Move general purpose components into general stock - Storage areas - Consolidate remaining items into a small number of containers - Label the containers so that they are easy to search through - Move the containers to a less accessible shelf (or downstairs) The purpose of the remaining items is to quickly bring someone up to speed if another of these items comes in for repair. So we don't want to overwhelm them by keeping every item that we have ever had on hand. We want a curated grouping of useful items along with pointers to where more info can be found. Reasons for keeping components (best to worst) - Custom made - PCB - PROMs or programmed processors - Frames, housings (that aren't too bulky) - Insulation material that is cut to shape - Difficult to source components - IGBT blocks - Current sensors - Expensive components - Common components