Hi Johnny, All,
Thanks Jonathan for the big picture perspective. It's helped a lot in Salt
Lake, we delivered 2427 refurbished bikes to our community last year from
that location alone, out of 2837 donated.
Specifically, we've been using the Walking Bird inventory control tag
http://walkingbird.com/ to good effect, but haven't been attaching it to
the bike upon donation. Our kids bikes and kill bikes (around 1200 bikes
last year) duck that system, once a bike is donated it is triaged, sorted
to be killed by volunteers, tuned by more skilled volunteers, or fixed by
paid mechanics. Only the bikes fixed by paid mechanics get a walking bird
tag. At this point you can integrate the system into your POS, since each
walking bird tag has a unique number. We use the tags to track the bike's
progress from mechanic to sales floor to client/customer, keeping the tag
on file after the bike has left the shop. So if a huffy comes in, gets two
hours spent on it, new tires and tubes and a brake cable, then is given
away a week later, the director of operations sees that bike coming and
going. We haven't integrated the system into our POS yet, rather we just
keep the tags, the director of operations goes through them to reconcile
consumables inventory and log mechanic efficiency, and keeps the paper on
file in case there's an issue with the bike down the road. We will
integrate with our POS as soon as we spend the time stepping it up to a
functional computer based, rather than partial paper, inventory. I'll
report back then.
I believe they're available through QBP, possibly J&B.
Thanks,
Davey
--
David Eyer Davis
Executive Director
Bicycle Collective
c: 801-230-6308
www.bicyclecollective.org
The mission of the Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective
and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner,
healthier, and safer society. The Collective provides refurbished bicycles
and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower
income households.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 10:54 AM, Jonathan Morrison <
jonathan.morrison@gmail.com> wrote:
> In my personal experience there is nothing new about what community bike
> shops do. All those "ah-ha!" moments are usually when someone has
> (un)intentionally applied an existing concept from another
> application/industry to their community bike shop. So save yourself the
> trouble and time of reinventing the wheel by actively trying to identify
> those concepts in the first place.
>
> Our current Executive Director (Davey Davis) hit it on nose when he
> claimed that
*"this isn't a shop, it is a factory"* at least in terms of
> operations management (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_management
> ).
>
> While I spent years in that shop, I failed to see it. Davey is a genius.
> But the fact is, broken bicycles are the raw material that we refine (in
> mass quantity) into a consumable product that is sold/re-donated. The more
> successful Community Bike Shops (that help the most people) are the ones
> that make that refurbishing process as efficient as possible.
>
> Efficiency happens when you increase the number of bicycles that go
> through the shop, while decreasing waste and the time it takes to for the
> average bike to go in and out the shop's door.
*A sign that you have an
> efficiency problem are excess storage. *Especially if they are stored
> for more than one "busy season". Given that some shops are in seasonal
> weather, obviously things might stack up in the winter. Accordingly, each
> shop will have a different averages and goals.
>
> So, what the hell am I rambling on about?
>
>
*If you don't track the bikes (dates, times and stages), it is hard to
> know how to improve.*
>
> If you are looking for a quick / fun / easy / socratic / fictional tale to
> get inspired on how operations management might help your shop achieve its
> mission, consider reading the, "The Goal."
>
>
>
http://www.homeworkforyou.com/static/uploadedfiles/User_569117112014E_M_Gold...
>
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jonathan Morrison
> c: 801-688-0183
>
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 7:45 AM, Nathan Wilkes
nwilkes2@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I was thinking a simple numbered ID.
>>
>> Nathan
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 3:42 PM, Jonathan Morrison <
>> jonathan.morrison@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What kind of solution are you looking into?
>>>
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Jonathan Morrison
>>> c: 801-688-0183
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:33 PM, jonny b
jonny@goodlifebikes.ca wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Friends,
>>>>
>>>> Do any shops have examples of tags that they use to track who donated
>>>> bikes, who's worked on the bikes, bike's state of repair, etc? We're
>>>> working on creating something simple and effective to facilitate donor
>>>> recognition as well as getting bikes effectively prepared and sorted for
>>>> our youth programs.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> Jonny
>>>>
>>>> John Barrett
>>>> The Good Life Community Bicycle Shop / Two Wheel View / Barrett's
>>>> Organic Berries
>>>> www.goodlifebikes.ca / www.twowheelview.org /
>>>> www.facebook.com/localorganicbarrettsberries
>>>> jonny@goodlifebikes.ca
>>>> 403.619.2648
>>>>
>>>> ____________________________________
>>>>
>>>> The ThinkTank mailing List
>>>> <a href="
>>>> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org">Unsubscribe
>>>> from this list</a>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
____________________________________
The ThinkTank mailing List
<a href="http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org">Unsubscribe from this list</a>
