It can be really difficult for people here to cross the border between Costa Rica and Panama. This is a sharp contrast to the immigration lines in airports. It seams like some the governments are putting on show for the Americas and making everyone else suffer. Its not always as crazy as it was in this video but it can be very time consuming.
Walking through the shops in David you could hardly tell you were in a “developing nation.” The stores look like anything you would find in America and the holiday shoppers are out in force. This raises the question “Why do people here need to go to America anymore?” It use to be that to find these type of good you would have to travel to the US. Now you can get the same stuff for a reasonable price. This is just one way that Panama is rapidly developing.
When things get busy, it’s hard to find time to keep up with your to-do list. If you have a lot to do you usually don’t have the time to sort through everything you need to do. You need to be on autopilot.
This highlights the need for keeping on top of your tasks when you are not busy. However, when you do not have a lot going on you do not really need a well defined system of organization. It is important to understand that even though you do not need to a well defined system you are really practicing for when you get really busy.
Like many things in life, if you have not been practicing the skills will not be there when you need them. Weekly reviews are a great way keep on top of your tasks. Just by looking at what needs to be completed, what you are working on and what are the road blocks will help you stay focused.
It’s not always easy to keep up with but practice makes perfect.
Posted by Nelson de Witt on December 18, 2009 under E-Book | Comments
Last time we talked about the importance of search and how an effective inventory program should have great searching capabilities.
Locating Inventory with an inventory program:
If you are going to be using a grid system, like the one we talked about earlier, you will need a way to locate the inventory items. Grid systems work well because you simply place inventory in the empty space and let the computer keep track of its location. This can save you a lot of hasle if your inventory program can track location information.
An effective inventory program will have fields set aside for location information. These fields should be flexible enough to fit your cataloging system. We suggest using numbers for columns and letters for rows but this is completely up to you. The important thing is that the program can adapt.
Location fields in an effective inventory program.
In the inventory program we created in Panama there is a is space for the column number and the row letter. You will want a program that has one or more field just for location information. If your program does not have a field for location information and you can not add one then I would consider looking into a new application.
You will want an inventory program that can adapt to your needs because no two inventory rooms are the same. You do not want to be stuck with an inventory program which was built for someone else’s space.
Up next:
Next week I’ll be going into detail about managing people in the inventory process.
This post is part of a series that make up the Effective Inventory PDF e-book. You can read more posts that are part of this book by clicking on the EffInv tag. New posts will be added every Friday, so subscribe or check back for more
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