Category: Drosophila Labs
Level: Gold
Author: Franziska B., Leferink H.
The Impact: <p>Reduce unnecessary stock ordering and waste</p>
Details
Poorly managed stocks of reagents and chemicals can easily lead to large sums of wasted money every month. When everyone in the lab only takes care of their own stocks, its easy for purchase practices to be unsustainable due to small and regular orders, or stocks being wasted due to expiry dates being reached before they can be used.
Consider establishing “common stocks” in the lab of frequently used items (i.e. balancer stocks). This enables you to perform bulk purchasing, reducing emissions associated to the transport and packaging of the items, but also reduces risk of items expiring.
Good stock management examples can include:
- Good labelling and storage systems in place
- Having inventories that track expiry dates and quantities
- Set up protocols that trigger reorders for items when stocks are low to avoid running out
- Implement a FIFO (First-In-First-Out) policy on using the stocks
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