Fun: renumbering and relabeling and re-ordering 4800 different parts
in stock, 1.6 million pieces, and changing all the documentation/BOMs,
and cutting over to the new software, all in two days if we're lucky.

The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

John

Nice pictures, John.

What's your new MRP software of choice?

The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

We have wire rack shelves where the wire "rungs" within each shelf are bent up
to hold/separate parts reels like that.

I suspect your approach is rather cheaper... plug you get to stick a label on
the front of the box, whereas we have to print out a new label for each new
reel, and usually pull out the reel to verify, e.g., our internal part number.
(In theory the reels are roughly sorted though, so this isn't as bad as it
first sounds.)

---Joel

P.S. -- I finally got ahold of a programming manual for the Tek 11802!

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:31:39 -0800, John Larkin
wrote:



Fun: renumbering and relabeling and re-ordering 4800 different parts
in stock, 1.6 million pieces, and changing all the documentation/BOMs,
and cutting over to the new software, all in two days if we're lucky.

The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

John

What software are you switching to/from?

On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 13:14:23 -0800, "Joel Koltner"
wrote:

Nice pictures, John.

What's your new MRP software of choice?

The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

We have wire rack shelves where the wire "rungs" within each shelf are bent up
to hold/separate parts reels like that.

I suspect your approach is rather cheaper... plug you get to stick a label on
the front of the box, whereas we have to print out a new label for each new
reel, and usually pull out the reel to verify, e.g., our internal part number.
(In theory the reels are roughly sorted though, so this isn't as bad as it
first sounds.)


We put stickers on the reels and envelopes, too, to keep things from
getting mixed up. Nowadays, production pulls a reel, uses some parts,
and returns the reel to stock. We need to put it in the right bin, and
to check every reel when we use it.

Those stickers on the black storage slots are post-it sorts of things,
easily moved.

I want to put color-code dots on every bin and reel and envelope,
random colors. It would reduce the probability of a mix-up by the
number of available dots.


---Joel

P.S. -- I finally got ahold of a programming manual for the Tek 11802!


I have a PowerBasic program that talks serially to the scope, exports
waveforms, and calculates jitter. Yours if you want it.

John

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:46:56 -0500, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:31:39 -0800, John Larkin
wrote:



Fun: renumbering and relabeling and re-ordering 4800 different parts
in stock, 1.6 million pieces, and changing all the documentation/BOMs,
and cutting over to the new software, all in two days if we're lucky.

The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

John

What software are you switching to/from?

Himax (my old DOS program) to MAX (my new console-mode Windows
program.) We looked at a lot of commercial packages, like P&V, and
didn't really like them.

John

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:31:39 -0800, John Larkin
wrote:



Reels are intended to be both the storage and the dispensing medium,
complete with labels (both theirs and yours) but moisture sensitivity
levels will often require a seal of some sort ...... and another set
of labels.

Any kind of bin creates arbitrary storage spaces that are either too
small or too large. None that I know of will comfortably handle both
reels and rails. If reels came in flat boxes, it might improve label
legibility, in storage.

Hope it works out. Assume 'black' means carbon-filled, for static
control.

RL

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:31:39 -0800, John Larkin wrote:

Fun: renumbering and relabeling and re-ordering 4800 different parts in
stock, 1.6 million pieces, and changing all the documentation/BOMs, and
cutting over to the new software, all in two days if we're lucky.

Ouch!

I'm going through more or less the same thing -- about three months ago,
I decided that a few massive cardboard boxes filled with random
assortments of parts was not a suitable storage medium. I'm now using the
Raaco A-series assorter boxes and Maplin "SF05F" assorters for fairly
large parts (thru-hole resistors, radial electrolytics and ICs), and some
of these for SMD passives (Rs, Cs, small Ls):
http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4580
Four of these will fit in a single bay of a Raaco A4-32 assorter, which
has 32 bays, for a total of 128 different parts. Two A4 boxes covers *a
lot* of SMD resistors and capacitors.

On top of that, you can snap the DX boxes together, so you don't
necessarily need the A4 assorter (it just makes things a bit tidier IMO,
and less likely that components will get mixed up).

As for labelling, I've got a Brother P-touch (the PT-2450DX) that I got
as a "trade show demo" unit on ebay for less than half RRP. It's got a
USB port, so you can build up labels on a PC, then print a ton of them
off as a batch. It's a bit sluggish, though (and the label tape
cartridges are a little on the expensive side).

I've been meaning to get some of the rectangular versions of the
Dealextreme boxes, but somehow never got round to it. They look ideal for
thru-hole parts, but 80% of the stuff I've been buying recently has been
SMD.

Software-wise... an OpenOffice spreadsheet. I'm hacking away at a PHP-
based stock database system in my spare time, but that's going slowly.
Aligni was on my shortlist until I saw the subscription rates.

I've actually got a barcode scanner kicking around here somewhere, and my
Evil Plan was to have a barcode on every label, uniquely identifying that
specific part. Scan it into the PC, and get a datasheet in a few seconds.
Saves typing and a bit of effort. The next step would be to tie that in
with e.g. a Psion Workabout or barcode-equipped Palm OS handheld and be
able to do that without dragging the parts over to the PC...


The cool black vertical things store all the small resistors and caps,
replacing the classic bins, saving a huge amount of shelf space.

It's pretty hard to get the local suppliers to supply parts on-the-reel.
In the past three or four years, it's only happened once -- when I
ordered two thousand logic-level low-power MOSFETs (it was cheaper to buy
2000 than it was to buy 100 - go figure). The N-ch parts arrived tape-and-
reeled, the P-ch parts were on the tape, but not reeled.

Cheers.
--
Phil.

http://www.philpem.me.uk/
If mail bounces, replace "09" with the last two digits of the current year

As for labelling, I've got a Brother P-touch (the PT-2450DX) that I got
as a "trade show demo" unit on ebay for less than half RRP. It's got a
USB port, so you can build up labels on a PC, then print a ton of them
off as a batch. It's a bit sluggish, though (and the label tape
cartridges are a little on the expensive side).



Software-wise... an OpenOffice spreadsheet. I'm hacking away at a PHP-
based stock database system in my spare time, but that's going slowly.
Aligni was on my shortlist until I saw the subscription rates.


Parts & Vendors (Trilogy Design) software is your answer to both. It is
about $300usd with no subscription, well documented, and will print out your
stock labels on regular old white address labels that you can get at any
discount office supply store.

I don't use bar code and I don't believe that P&V label routine will do bar
code.

Jim