Organizing Tips

[blayde5]

Labels are your friends

What we do in our shop is keep the KOP Totes and put different parts in each one. IE Motors, PVC, Wheels etc. For screws, bolts, nuts and other smaller such objects, we plan to use little pull out shelves which will be better for organization (right now they're in boxes in totes)

For tools, we use these: http://www.milcompass.com/toolbox/3_7bx3mx9tbg.jpg. We have one set for mechanical tools and another for electrical tools.

For electrical and mechancial we also have two cabinets where we put our other stuff that doesn't have a place anywhere like paint, grease, new orders, extra medals etc.

At competition we usually bring things in totes or if the comp is local (like SVR) we load everything into a truck (the tool chests, cabinets, and some totes) and ship it off to comp on thursday.

Hope that helped!

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by blayde5

Labels are your friends

What we do in our shop is keep the KOP Totes and put different parts in each one.

Yes, do this.

The way I recall it, the morning of the first competition I went to with my team was a frantic "packing" session for the event- everyone threw every single object in the room into boxes, we loaded them all into the school bus with us, and we went to the event. This is a terrible idea in general- you're carrying tons of parts and tools which are not relevant to your current robot, and you can't find any of the useful things that are buried somewhere in the mess.

Take the time to think through what parts/supplies/tools/raw materials you'll need in competition, and plan out a rough list. Pack related components in similar boxes - perhaps have a box of electrical parts, a box for pneumatics, a box of fasteners, a box of spirit supplies, etc. Maybe make a brief packing list of what is in each box for reference in the pits, if that would help people. Label your boxes/drawers/shelves appropriately, and put things back in their proper positions. You might think it's annoying to take the extra two seconds to put that 7/16" wrench back in the wrench drawer now, but when there are two minutes left until your next match and you need it to make a crucial repair, you'll wish you could find it in the toolbox drawer where it was supposed to be.

Obviously there are many variations on organizational systems, but the most important thing is that you create some universal rules of organization, and that your whole team sticks to them.