Nolene Sherman said:

My choices seem to be:
1) Dedicate a couple of days a week to do a physical inventory myself
2) Send inventory forms to each department with instructions and have
the departments do their own inventories, follow up myself for any
questions or clarifications
3) Use some underutilized personnel in the company to assist in doing a
physical inventory.

Why not do all three? You can personally inventory the area that are the most critical (or problematic), send forms and instructions to the departments whom you believe can handle it, and send the underutilized personnel to departments that do not have anyone available to do it.

Having wrestled with questions like this recently I also would advise limiting the scope of your inventory to the obtaining the information you absolutely need to accomplish your objective considering your limitations. Also, keep your forms simple and provide detailed instructions.

Remember there are things that you understand but can't assume other Non-RIM people would also know. For example, inventorying records in a building full of spiders with no heat or water and a bathroom a third of a mile away is not an appropriate place to inventory records. Don't assume resources such as copies, markers, pens etc are readily available in all areas. Ensure your people have them or access to them when they arrive at the site of the inventory. If you are imputing into a computer at a remote site ensure the technology works and your people have the necessary access rights before they go out.

Select a small department or business unit as pilot inventories for each of your resource choices. Choose departments where you can finish the inventory quickly. You can then process you information and find out what did and did not work and improve your inventory methods before moving on to other departments.

My 2 cents. Good Luck.

Rob Seibolt
Aquila
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