My Lego warehouse started small and grew alarmingly fast. As birthdays and Christmases elapsed both the volume and diversity increased. Moving from basic to technical added sophistication to what you could build.
The warehouse however was pretty random, A big red box - Sorry: BOX: STORAGE, PLASTIC, 45X30X30CM, RED
This warehouse had just one storage location; everything was heaped in. The sound made when delving your hand into the box to search for the elusive piece still brings a smile to my face as I type.
So how did you classify and name your pieces, Well James May (TV presenter and fellow Geek), wrote about this in "JAMES MAY'S TOY STORIES". It seems that each family unit tends to have a name for the common pieces that allows the most bossy party to order the helping minion to secure the part required. (Sound familiar?).
When embarking on an ambitious Lego project I would spend a frantic few minutes getting organised. Empty the warehouse and sort some of the similar sizes shapes and coloured blocks into pleasing uniform piles. With hindsight some separate bin locations would have been a luxury, but you know that anyone else using the inventory would have put it away wrong , especially if the bin wasn't labelled.
Imagine the luxury of having a Lego inventory that re-ordered the parts and restocked then just in time so you always had the parts available. But that did not happen and you had to be creative. Two or more smaller parts used in place of a larger piece.
As the necessary parts dwindled the uniform colour scheme became random or striped. Odd pieces were used up and the location of a critical part went from becoming a matter of irritation, to frustration to being a life or death situation. Rarely was the purchasing option available or suitable to fulfil the immediate need.
On the grand occasion of a new kit arriving with detailed instructions and exactly the right parts to complete the build the construction became an industrial process.
The subsequent break-up of the plant allowed the parts to be returned to the warehouse some of which were never to be used again, but never, ever thrown away. But sometimes if you were very lucky they were re-distributed.
Name and shame bad data providers?
Fed up with unstructured, uncontrolled data spawning duplicates left right and centre?
Should we create an academy, set exams, issue certificates?
Doctors get struck off for their misdemeanours. Should we be naming and shaming the worst data offenders?
Years ago, as a young national account manager, I used to visit one of the top retailers in the country. You would sit in their waiting area, everyone with their sales presentations and samples at the ready. Just to the right of the entrance, to see the buyers, was a board. On the board was a list of 10 suppliers. The top 5 suppliers, who had successfully delivered what was ordered and the bottom 5 who had failed to deliver some or all of what was ordered. Perhaps you can imagine the discomfort of seeing your company name in the bottom 5, it certainly got my attention! What can we do to improve the awareness of data quality? Can we have an Oscars and Raspberries equivalent?
Data quality really matters. How do we manage it? If you are interested in material masters then this link may be of interest www.material-masters.com
Enough ranting and raving, for the moment - be interested to read your comments, thoughts and solutions.