First off, I think you'll have to be really organized to keep this on track. I'm not saying you're shop is not but the experience I had running our shop, we had constant troubles keeping member's project bikes tagged with basic info, if at all. I think your system will have to be designed to be as easy as possible to use by your volunteers/staff and you may want to discuss how to avoid not tagging correctly and what happens in that case ect.

I have never done this but two ideas spring to mind. Use multiple tags that can be put together to make the entire description, one card for wheel size, one for frame size... This would not work too well for describing work that needs to be done, you would have to make a grading system or tag parts of the bike that need repair. The other would be to implement a software database and print up numbers. You would be able to store whatever information you wanted and it would even be searchable. You would also have a historic record of bikes that have gone through the shop. After we finish (and start) work on the website, this is something I'm hoping to put into a much larger application but will certainly be far off in the future.

.godwin

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Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:31:16 -0400
From: dugan.meyer@gmail.com
To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Request for Inventory Tag Templates or Ideas

Hiya!

Do any of you wonderful shops out there have a usable bike inventory tag you could share with us at MoBo? We're trying to design a tag for available project bikes in our basement that would list basic info like top tube length, wheel size, etc. etc. and notes about work needed -relevant info for members sifting through potential projects and then recording work done over the course of the project.

If you have something that's worked for your shop or a document from another source and would pass it along, we'd be grateful. Advice on things to include would also be helpful.

Thanks, friends!

Dugan Meyer
MoBo Bicycle Cooperative, Cincinnati

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