Logistics Inventory

Policies

How we label our boxes

• Everything gets inventoried, but not everything gets counted. Some boxes may have different instructions. But in general, take pictures of what's in the DNI box, and post it to the logistics channel you have access to, or somewhere relevant per the instructions on the DNI sheet, along with what box it came from. Even though we don't want written inventory, we still need a rough idea as to what's in the box. Ideally spread the stuff around a little so we know what we have. This is especially important for prize boxes.
• If we decide we don't need a sheet for something, we need a picture of it.
• Color spikes go on opposite corners of a box, with the location written on the spike.
• Box labels go on the short ends of the box, on white duck tape. Technically we only need them on one side, and logistics staff want it on the side opposite the sterilite label, but it's far easier to tell a volunteer to just label both ends.
• All sheets go back to Beta. I don't care what happens to them, I want them all back
• As much as reasonable, one box to one sheet. Exceptions can be made
• Every box needs a unique name. Ideally a descriptive unique name, but you can also just append "A", "B" etc. as needed.
• Any loose paper goes home with Beta. It may need to be scanned, it may need to be recycled, but it must come home with me!

Procedure

Prep

• Have upper staff involved in the process read this procedure as a refresher; discuss and updated as needed
• Organize and print sheets (inventory sheets and DNI list)
• Print a list of things that need to be respiked
• Update and print instructions
• Print tape key
• Print this procedure
• Make sure to set out anything that needs to go in the morning (like scales, or those damn stickers I bought 2 years ago)

Plan for

• Someone to bring ice chests
• Someone to bring ice
• Consider if we need snacks/water. There is likely some in storage.
• Who's in charge of the inventory day - who will be assigning people to places, ensuring they've read the instructions, and helping when needed

At Storage Prep before counting

These can mostly be done in any order

• Have everyone read the instructions, discuss as needed
• Get counting supplies out of filing cabinet
  • clipboards
  • pens
  • binder clips for completed sheets
• Match pieces of tape to the tape key to help people match them
• Have everyone read the instructions, discuss as needed

• Post tape key and instructions in a central location

Empty Storage and organize boxes and sheets

1. Pull everything out of storage and organize boxes by tape color. Spread out as needed along the wall to give plenty of space between color stacks. This helps get boxes together so all cosplay boxes will be together when we start for example. It will also help with respiking, which we had some issues getting corrected this year. Tape color piles may need to be split further into locations if there are a lot to a color (Light green and purple, are each 4 locations).
2. Organize sheets with their colored box stacks.
3. Match sheets to individual boxes. Do not separate out highlighted / precounted sheets, they still need to be verified.
4. Respike then relocate boxes as needed, based on what the sheets say to do.

Count, minion, count!

Two people to a box, one person handles the sheet, one person handles the box, and otherwise work together to get through the box faster

1. Put both your names on the sheet
2. Check color tag, location, box name
   1. Respike or relabel as needed. Update sheet as needed.
3. Empty the box
4. Count things as they are going back into the box
5. If the count doesn't match expected to actual -
   1. Is this a consumable item that you may be able to refill? Pens, for example, you could pull more of from the misc office supplies boxes
   2. If it's not an item that can be refilled easily today at storage, just write in the actual quantity
6. Put actual quantity in the "Actual Quantity" field
   1. Make sure to put in "0" if there were 0 there. That will either get refilled or removed from the sheet later.
7. When box is done, set aside in a "done" pile, keeping it next to your "todo" color pile. The colors should still stay grouped.
8. Put sheets with that color's "done" sheets. Use a clipboard or binder clip to keep them together and separated from the "todo" sheets.

Notes

• Do Misc Office Supplies LAST, we likely need to pull from these boxes to restock others
• We should consider having most people focus on one color at a time, as space allows, so that a color can be reviewed by upper staff and things tweaked in the boxes as needed

Verification Process

If a box was counted on the way out, plan for a quicker review

1. Look at sheet, look in box.
2. If necessary, empty the box
3. For each item on the sheet, look at the corresponding items in the box and eyeball if the count is plausible
4. If the count is plausible, put a checkbox in "Actual Quantity"
5. If the count looks wrong, count the items and put the actual quantity in the "Actual Quantity" field

Completed Box Review

Upper staff (Logistics head, Sammich, Beta) reviews the sheets for a color stack, thinks about how they need to be for con, and makes any changes necessary. Could direct a second person to make changes to boxes while they update the sheets. Buddying up here also makes sense.

After Inventory

1. Determine a place to have lunch - the company pays for lunch
2. Take attendance for who is going to the lunch for tax and record purposes
3. Company pays for lunch
4. Discuss how inventory went and take notes. Focus on
   1. What were the pain points? How can we fix them
   2. What went wrong? How can we prevent it
   3. What when right? Lets make sure we do it again
   4. Any lessons learned?
5. Update documentation and resources as needed

After-After Inventory

1. Reorder the sheets
2. Scan the sheets
3. Update the inventory spreadsheet - USING A WORKSHEET COPY. Do not edit the originals as they were before inventory