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Re: Purchasing Parts
Note: Our team is pretty small, and late in the build season we usually have 10 students and 5 mentors working, so this system might not work for a huge team.
1. We have one dedicated mentor for parts ordering. This mentor also leads the students in maintenance of the pit and other PR stuff from year to year. If a student/team of students wants a part, they find it online (usually mcmaster), and send the mentor an email with the part number, and how quickly they need the part. For the most part this mentor just orders the part from where we tell him to, but sometimes he'll search around for the best deal. (Did you know that amazon actually has really good prices on weird bearings, lead screws, and strange gears?)
2. We split our money into categories, some for saving, some for travel, some for PR....
3. At the beginning of the season, we buy a bunch of aluminum, plywood, and HDPE. We usually use all of this for the practice bot, and buy more for the competition bot.
Also, we purchase a bunch of common bolts, nuts, washers.... that last us through the season. The extras are used on offseason projects.
4. This is not our strength. When we notice somethings missing/broke, we buy a new one. We should probably inventory our equipment and check it regularly, but we don't.
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