how do you handle your inventories and bom ?

[DaSt]

Hi

I wonder how you guys handle those... for now i use excel but am looking for a hosted php bom manager with inventory. No luck with free stuff so far so before i begin coding one myself i thought i could ask you :)

Thx

[Sensei Tim]

I use the mouser project manager for most of my parts/BOMs.

You can export them as an excel file and then add on whatever parts you get from blms, tayda, small bear, etc.

For inventories,  I keep the commonly used parts in Kanban and reorder when stock drops below a certain point.  Yes, I drank the lean manufacturing Kool aid :)

[IvIark]

Excel for me too with a different worksheet for every component type.  It may not be the most advanced way of doing it but it works for me, and being Excel means I can incorporate other useful addons in other worksheets, like frequency calcs for filters, gyrators, resistors and caps in series and parallel, opamp gain etc etc and have all that info in one place.

[Frank_NH]

I have used Excel too.  If you do BOMs for ten or more projects, it's interesting to see what component values are most used (e.g. 100 NF caps and 1 M resistors).

I think we should do a project where each vero on this site has a BOM created in a Google spreadsheet.  It would probably only take about a week or two to complete with a team of 5 or 10 people, and the data would be very valuable, both for individual projects and collectively.

[DaSt]

Hey,

So far i've used Excel too but I miss the ability to access it from everywhere, as well as some sexy look and feel :)

I began developing something. If I manage to make it usable by someone else than me i'll let you know and we'll see from there if we begin to include BOM from this site's effects ^^

[rocket88]

I use excell as well, especially when in putting together a specific build and may need to order parts. For all the stuff I usually keep in stock I just eyeball it. For example caps, if the level gets bellow a specific point I order more.

[fenderguy79]

Frank, I'd be in for helping create BOM's for the vero's on this site!

[Sensei Tim]

what about a shared mouser project BOM thread for the projects on the site?

[Frank_NH]

"what about a shared mouser project BOM thread for the projects on the site?"

How does this work?  That would work as well as a shared spreadheet.

I have shared out my JFET spreadsheet in the past on OneDrive.  A Google spreadsheet would work as well.

Here's a (crude) picture of my BOM spreadsheet.  Basically, components on rows and projects on columns.  No resistors (I assume I have enough of those), but they could be added.

The interesting data gleaned from this kind of spreadsheet is the number of particular components used in the projects.  For example, here's the distribution of 1 nF - 1 uF capacitors:

Film Cap. 1 nF 10
Film Cap. 2.2 nF 8
Film Cap. 3.3 nF 5
Film Cap. 4.7 nF 8
Film Cap. 6.8 nF 0
Film Cap. 10 nF 7
Film Cap. 22 nF 13
Film Cap. 33 nF 0
Film Cap. 39 nF 0
Film Cap. 47 nF 16
Film Cap. 68 nF 0
Film Cap. 100 nF 34
Film Cap. 150 nF 3
Film Cap. 220 nF 18
Film Cap. 330 nF 0
Film Cap. 470 nF 13
Film Cap. 680 nF 1
Film Cap. 1 uF  8

Guess which values I'm constantly running out of...

[Sensei Tim]

I just shared my zendrive BOM

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.ca/2012/01/hermida-zendrive.html

go here:

http://ca.mouser.com/Tools/Tools.aspx

and use this code b99118a5d1 where it asks for Access ID

you should then see my BOM (less knobs, power jacks, in/out jacks, stomp switch, sockets, etc because i don't get those from mouser)

you can then click "export to excel" in the upper right corner and get an worksheet with part numbers, costs, quantities, and descriptions.

you can then have multiple sheets (one for each BOM) and then have a master sheet that counts parts (if you're disciplined enough to use the same part number for all builds.... i'm not :( )

[Chris60601]

I basically start out by writing out the parts I need. Go out to Mammoth and start adding the items to the cart.

Ok, I can already hear some grumbles and sighs out there - just read on.

At that point, I print it out as a PDF and store for the future. When I'm ready to build, I already have a starting point on the prices and I aim to get the parts cheaper. That means ordering from a few vendors but mainly Tayda unless I want something in a few days.

From there I take the final listing THEN add them to a spreadsheet. This helps me to always try to find the best deal. Lots of times, Mammoth does have the better price. But I rarely have the opportunity to by ALL the parts from one vendor - sure, I did early on when I was a bit more naive then I am now, but that's part of the learning process and in the end, sometimes sourcing can be more fun than the build itself.

But for stock, I do as rockett does - just kinda eyeball it really. Prolly a bit more info than you wanted, but in the end, we all develop what works for each of us.

Cheers
Chris

[Sensei Tim]

Chris,

When you do that don't your cost savings get eaten up by extra shipping costs?

[Chris60601]

In the past, yeah - as of late, Sometimes. When that happens I try to add some parts from a low inventory.

But further explanation is needed. Early on I would do just that. Order just the parts for one project. The shipping killed me especially when the parts were maybe 18.00 and the shipping was like 9.00 But I didn't know better and worse off, my pride wouldn't let me ask the forum folks if there was a better way.

As time went on, I learned to order a few extra parts of each item with each order. That lessened the pain of the shipping. When I got to where my parts turned to stock, I added items that I saw others using/ordering. Mainly from a few threads that was started here and as I looked at more projects it just got easier and cheaper. At times I was forced to use multiple vendors simply because Mammoth might not have an item or two where SmallBear would and vice versa.

In the end it came down to paying the cheaper shipping. And using the U.S. Mail for me is the cheapest. Normally in the 2 or 3 dollar range. Again, there are places that offer free shipping but you might pay for that in other ways. For example, the shipping may be free but the wait time could be as long as 2 weeks - That may be more acceptable in certain circumstances.

Sometimes you just need some parts.... Yesterday :)
I'm still learning and making big time mistakes but that's Ok. How else ya gonna learn?!
And allow me to  apologize for being long winded. Prolly more info than anyone cared to know but this was more for the user that is unsure about asking or looking foolish in front of others (as I was) and I hope that if this helped just one, then it's a good thing.

[Muadzin]

Since I order almost everything from Tayda I have created an excel spreadsheet that has almost every part that they have that I need based on experience and what I think I might possibly need in the future, together with their prices. Took me an OCD filled evening but now I can create BOM's for projects that I plan to build, know what it will cost and it also calculates the 15% discount if there's a code. Now all I have to do is fill in the number of parts and Vegas, baby!

Occasionally I come across a obscure tranny or IC that is not included in my spreadsheet, but that's always easily added. The only thing it can't calculate is shipping because I don't know how they calculate it. But its usually between $7,50 and $8,20 for me any way so I've added an average of that. Just for OCD fun I've even added some extra columns with stuff from Smallbear, Banzai, Musikding and Newtone that they have but Tayda doesn't.