Never run out.
A smart lab inventory tracker that knows when to reorder, writes your Monday order list for you, and only ever asks you to count the items that are close to running out. Set up in an afternoon.
In most labs I walk into, no one owns ordering. A reagent runs out mid-experiment. Two people order the same thing. A box sits in goods-in for a week. The stock list is usually out of date, and every order means hunting for the catalogue number again.
Every scientist becomes a part-time buyer, pulling them away from the bench. The tracker fixes this by calculating a reorder point for every item that matters, one list on Monday, and a count that only asks about the items near running out.
- The stock list. One row per item: supplier, catalogue number, pack size, cost, location, owner, lead time, use per week. The sheet calculates the reorder point and shows the maths, gives every item a status you can act on (OK, Order now, On order, Critical), and writes the Monday order list grouped by supplier, ready to paste into a purchase request.
- The guide. Eight pages: set-up in an afternoon, the maths behind the reorder point, Monday's list and Thursday's count, the Summary and how to action it.
- The automated reminders. Sends the order list every Monday morning by email, Slack or Teams, with a button to confirm what you ordered; a short count form to the item owners every Thursday; a button to log each delivery as it lands; and one alert when anything turns Critical or a delivery is late. Two minutes to switch on, nothing to install and nothing leaves your on-site system.
- One afternoon. List your suppliers with their lead times, paste in three months of orders (or import the order history from MyAmici or your finance system), walk the lab once to fill in locations, owners and a first count. Start with about fifty items.
- Monday. The order list arrives in your inbox or chat: everything at Order now or Critical, grouped by supplier with catalogue numbers and line costs. Simply paste it into your order system, such as MyAmici, and mark it ordered.
- Thursday. The Count tab names only the items near their reorder point. Count those only. You never have to do a full stocktake.
Buy through a procurement service such as MyAmici? Add your buyer as the procurement contact and the Monday list is copied to them, ready to raise as requisitions.
Typical figures from the teams I have worked with.
Take a team of eight spending 26 hours a week between them on ordering, chasing and looking for things: about £48,000 a year at a loaded cost of £40 an hour, before counting the experiments that stalled because something ran out. Reorder points and a Monday list typically take two thirds of that time away, and the stock-out count falls to near zero within a quarter.
The spend-by-supplier table is the second prize. Most labs find one supplier taking a third or more of the spend without a negotiated price, and three or four suppliers carrying one or two items each. These figures tell you where you can negotiate better prices.
Want the proper version?
A free audit, up to half a day on site. I walk the lab with your team and follow a sample from arrival to result. Bring the Summary tab; the spend-by-supplier table is where the approved supplier list starts. Within a week you get a short report ranking the two or three problems costing you the most.
