Hi Julie,

The basic problem with inventory systems is the ownership for 
maintenance of the inventory.

Frequently, when the inventory is centralized, the ownership is 
inadvertently taken away from the lab owner.

This causes the entire inventory system to fail.

What you need is a central inventory that still is capable of 
maintaining local ownership.  Not an easy thing to do.

Industry succeeds in doing this by providing the management systems to 
insure that the inventories are updated monthly by the lab owner.

Universities frequently lack the disciplined management to make this happen.

Dan Crowl
Michigan Tech University

Julie Olsen wrote:
> We are looking for information on how small colleges handle their 
> chemical inventory and MSDS information. We have several academic 
> departments that are maintaining their own inventories and MSDSs and are 
> considering using a common inventory system.  We would like to hear from 
> other schools about what they do and how well it works.
> 
> Julie Olsen
> Assistant Dean of the College
> Wabash College
> Crawfordsville, IN 47933
> 765-361-6206

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