Property Room Setup

From TrackerProducts Wiki

Overview

Setting up an efficient and well-organized storage room is the best way to maximize the streamlined power provided by Tracker Products software. Mistakes in this area are costly, but their likelihood can be minimized with some careful planning and thought.

Example storage room with a few shelves and filing cabinets

Example of a larger storage room with multiple shelves and a loader for moving items

A very important question that you need to ask yourself, in regards to setting up the storage room, is how detailed should the organization system be. That is, if you need to find an item, how big of an area do you want to search to find it?

Answer: It's never "too easy" to find an item.

One of the unbeatable features of the Tracker Products software is the ability to find the location of an item at any point in time. If you type a Case # into the system, you will be presented with the items that are in that Case and the location of those items. We recognize that your job depends on finding items easily and accurately. Tracker's software system makes that possible.

As you can see in this screen shot, you are presented with a list of items that are in a Case. There are 11 items in the Case. Items #8 and #9 are disposed. Item #7 is checked out of the system. The remaining items are in the room. You should be able to look at the property room location column and go retrieve those items immediately.

The most common pitfall we've observed in storage rooms is the failure to make the organization process more specific. For example, if you tracked an item to the first shelf in the back of the storage room in the first picture above (Shelf #1), how long would it take you to find that particular item? It could be on any of the four rows within that shelf. Looking for it wastes valuable time and makes your organization vulnerable to lost or misplaced items. The easiest way to fix this problem is to note the rows on shelves in your property room.

Bad Setup	Good Setup
An inefficent setup would be to label this shelf 1	A much better setup would be to label each row as part of shelf 1
An inefficent setup would be to label these filing cabinets as FC1 and FC2	A much better setup is to label each drawer in each cabinet

Obviously you can get very detailed in your setup. In fact, it's possible for the organizational setup to be too detailed. Your ultimate objective is the ability to find an item without a lot of work, which opens the process to human error. If your locations are too broad, it will take too long to find the item. If they are too detailed, you will spend an excess of time setting up your locations. Consider your organization's needs and possible property room setup to strike the balance and achieve optimal efficiency.

The primary difference in the two room location examples at the top of this section is mainly size. The bigger room simply has more locations.

Creating Room Locations

To create room locations, go to ‘Custom Fields’ and then the ‘Locations’ tab.

All new installs of Tracker software come default with NO locations created. Determining the locations available to users of the system is one of the very first setup steps. The screen shot above is the default location screen with no locations yet created for that agency.

The locations setup in version 08.10 or better of the Tracker system allows you to create a tree structure with unlimited depth. Many users have found it helpful to draw up possible structures before creating the locations in the sysem. This is highly recommended.

This is an example of a location setup for a single agency department
Level 1: Your Department
Level 2:	Property Room (Main Storage Area)
Level 3:		Shelf #1
Level 4:			Row A
Level 5:				Box 1
Level 5:				Box 2
Level 5:				Box 3
Level 4:			Row B
Level 4:			Row C
Level 4:			Row D
Level 3:		Shelf #2
Level 4:			Row A
Level 4:			Row B
Level 4:			Row C
Level 4:			Row D
Level 3:		Gun Locker
Level 3:		Drug Locker
Level 4:			Row A
Level 4:			Row B
Level 4:			Row C
Level 2:	Off Site Storage (Storage for carry over items)
Level 2:	Parking Lot (Vehicle Storage)

This screen shot was drawn up in Microsoft Word (or any word processing software). We listed all of our options before creating them in the system. Working in Word will allow you to easily make changes as you begin to lay out your locations.

Note: It is recommended that the highest levels of your tree structure be options that are the broadest. Level 2 of your structure should not be shelves in a room if you have multiple rooms where items are stored. Set your highest levels of storage and then work your way down from the previous level. The example Word document above would indicate that there are multiple rooms in that facility. If you only have one room where items are stored, then your highest level locations could be the shelves that are in that room.

This is an example of a setup where multiple facilities are in use
Level 1: DC Office
Level 2: 	Drug Room
Level 3: 		Shelf 1
Level 3: 		Shelf 2
Level 4: 			Row A
Level 4: 			Row B
Level 5: 				Box 1
Level 5: 				Box 2
Level 2: 	Gun Room
Level 3: 		Rack 1
Level 2: LA Office
Level 3: 	Drug Room
Level 3: 		Shelf 1
Level 3: 		Shelf 2
Level 1: Chicago Office
Level 3: 	Drug Room
Level 3: 		Shelf 1
Level 3: 		Shelf 2

Getting Started To begin building your structure, click on the location. In this case that would be the 'Tracker Products LLC' location. Clicking the top level will take us to a screen where you would be presented with the following options:

• Add Sublocation Create the locations that will be listed directly under the location selected.
  
  
• Add Multiple Sublocations Allow the system to automatically generate locations that will be listed under this location.
  
  
• Inactivate Location Created locations cannot be deleted, they can only be inactivated.
  
  
• Print Container Label Print a container label for the currently selected location.
  
  

After clicking the Add Sublocation option, we are presented with this screen. In the top box, we are going to create a list of all locations where items are stored.

Note: The checkbox fields at the bottom will be applied to each of the locations you are creating in the top section. You will want to create locations as they apply to your checkboxes. It is suggested that you create all temporary locations at once. When this task is completed, continue entering other types of locations.

• Moveable Are the options being created moveable locations. If you want the option of moving a locaiton once it is created then you will want to click this option. (It is rare that you will need to use this option. Most locations are not movable nor would you want to move a location. When moving a location in the system it will move all items regardless of the accuracy of the data. For example, if the system says there are 10 items in the box then it will move 10 items. It does not know if one item is missing.)
  
  
• Barcodeable Are the options being created barcodeable locations? Do you want the location label to contain a barcode. By placing a barcode on the location you are allowing a user with a PDA device or USB scanner to perform transcations on that location. If the items in the location are sensitive, it is not advised to have a barcode on the location.
  
  
• Temporary Location If the locations being created are temporary, then select this option. Temporary locations are typically used by a police department where officers enter items to a temporary location because they don't have access to item storage locations. NOTE: Your default install of the system will most likely have temporary locations turned on which means the item entry screen will show these temporary locations. If you do not want to use temporary locations and would only like the option of permanent locations when creating an item, please notify tracker support.
  
  

This screen shot is representative of what you will have after you create your second level sub locations. From here, you will want to create more locations and or possibly begin creating your sub-sub locations.

This screen shot adds slightly more structure to our locations. The first few items are temporary lockers followed by my level two permanant locations. The + sign next to some locations indicates the presence of sub locations to that item. Click the plus sign to see that structure. The last item in this screen shot shows the sub locations available.