With all the chemicals and other vital pieces of equipment that constantly get shuffled around in the hectic environment of a modern-day laboratory, it can be easy to misplace essential items. If you are the one running the lab, you don’t need that additional stress. That’s why we’ve made a list of inventory management tips for lab managers to utilize within their medical facilities.
Create a Comprehensive Stock List
If you don’t already have one, you need to create a stock list of everything you have immediately. So many things can slip between the cracks without a comprehensive list, especially when it comes to purchasing new items. For example, adding a stock list could help you avoid many of the problems that occur when ordering specialty gases.
Set Up an Organization System
Of course, no stock list is complete without an organizational system to go with it. You’ll need an easy way to figure out where all your chemicals and equipment are located. A check-out system will need to be implemented with this as well, since other people will need to know when something isn’t available. While this might be a pain initially, it will lead to much less frustration down the road.
Train Employees To Handle Equipment Better
Obviously, none of this will do you any good if nobody knows how to use it. Unfortunately, that means you’ll have to offer more training to current and future employees. This will be tedious for them, but once they know how to use the system, it will become second nature, and they won’t ever want to go back to the old ways.
Hire Someone To Take Care of Everything
Our final inventory management tip for lab managers out there who are struggling to keep up with everything is to hire a specialist for extra assistance. We’d still recommend that you follow our previous tips and set everything up yourself, though. That way, you will know precisely how everything works. Then you can hire someone to run and maintain your system so that you can put your focus on more pressing matters
However, people and companies who specialize in these services exist. That means if you don’t think you can handle all these changes yourself, you can hire someone to do it for you. This will free up even more of your time, but once it’s all ready, you’ll need to set aside a window to learn the system and all that it can do thoroughly. That way, you can utilize it to its full potential instead of letting vital parts get overlooked.
