Inventory Operation

Need

How do you feel about bureaucracy? It seems to me that almost every one of us immediately has an associative series of “roads”, “fools” and other original Russian troubles. And I was no exception until I became something of a supply manager in our small team.
Suddenly, it suddenly turned out that with the increase in the number of “inventory units”, whether it be a system unit, a monitor, a printer or a coffee machine, the need for accounting arises by itself. And if there is a need, you need to look for the most effective solution. I would like to share my decision with you.

My wards became devices. But not a voltmeter, a washing machine or a screwdriver, but expensive measuring equipment of a radio engineering sense. Generators, spectrum analyzers, circuits, signals, oscilloscopes, etc. But, in terms of the problems that arise, my zoo is not much different from the estate of a mid-level system administrator. About a hundred cars, each of which you need to know:

• where is she now and who dragged her there;
• what characteristics does it have;
• what additional options are installed;
• what external interfaces are;
• what other inventory units are included, etc.

Naturally, keeping in mind the answers to all these questions is impossible. Need to record. And of course, that’s not on paper. No, I'm not a zealous environmentalist. It's just that paper is already perceived as an anachronism, and I forgot how to write with a pen.
In addition, access to information should be fast, at any time of the day or night, and from anywhere.

Electronic document management ™

The solution was, in my opinion, simple, elegant and effective. The corporate wiki has a page with a description of each device. A label with inventory and serial numbers, a name and a QR code leading to the device page is pasted on each device:

How it works

The main user tool is a phone with a QR code scanner installed (for example, QR Droid for Android), as well as a corporate wiki.

If you have a device

We approach the device, scan the shortcut using the phone, the browser opens a page with a description, we find out all the necessary information. The last thing your phone sees before going to the description page:

If you are in the laboratory (server room, warehouse, etc.), but there is no necessary device

There is a plate with QR codes, which contains all the devices from this laboratory. Go to the list of devices, look for the one you need in it, scan the code, find out the fate of the device. If you don’t like using the phone, you can go to the computer and follow the next step.

If there is a serial number of the device

Go to the corporate wiki and find the device by serial number.

What is required from users

For the system to work, personnel will have to make a small effort if someone drags the device from room to room. It is necessary to enter information about this on the instrument description page. Or at least inform the manager about it.
I draw your attention to the fact that the entire history of the movement of devices is formed on the wiki.

QR code creation

I created QR codes using the qrencode program , it is in the repositories. I think some kind of analogue can also be found for windows.
Usage example:

qrencode -o ~/PicName.png -s 6  'http://www.srns.ru/wiki/R&S_RT-Z10_I/N_210134000623_(прибор)'

After execution, we will get PicName.png with the desired picture, in which there will be a link. The -s 6 option sets the scale. Everything is simple.
Naturally, pictures for all devices are generated at once using an elementary script.

Lyrical conclusion

Recently, I have been observing senile optimism. There was a belief bordering on the hope that the age of the Internet and IT should finally overcome this bacchanalia of pieces of paper, approvals and associated corruption, that Russia has been plagued for so many years.