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A project is made of components, what creates the necessity to manage them effectively. Parts, tools, anything physical needs a space and planning behind it.

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A project has and will have to face challenges regarding space and parts. We can categorize physical resources as follows:

• Parts, Components and Tools
  • Parts or Components the project needs for its functioning (Critical Components)
  • Parts or tools for R&D/Testing
  • Obsolete Parts
  • Tools for developing/working on the project
• Space
  • Workshop area, where the team actively works on a project. This should include frequent tools
  • Frequent Storage Area, parts that are easily accessible during prototyping and fabrication.
  • Infrequent Storage Area. Where obsolte parts sit or long term storage (will be used in months).
  • Meeting Space. Where the team will hold meetings, events, etc.
  • Laptop/study work area.

Part of project management is ensuring the project has all the necessary resources to work effectively. This includes ensuring spaces are available when needed and that critical parts or components are available with spare parts in case they break. Doing this is mostly about planning ahead. Let’s see an example of what managing parts should look like.

Physical Resources Tracking

Wiring Tracking

If the part or component is critical, the team should have spare parts (the recommended amount). Knowing more or less which parts will break more easily is the way to keep track of what matters and you should keep track of failures. The last thing you want is something breaking or malfunctioning and not having a spare part to replace it!

BOM - Bill of Materials

I am of the belief that keeping track of all materials and resources a team has is basically impossible and very time consuming. However, keeping track of the critical components that the project needs to work or are required to do maintenance is essencial for its success. You should keep something like this and update it frequently:

Both the Bill of Materials and the resource tracking could be done together. This helps you understand the Power Budget of the project (how much it consumes), the mass budget (how much everything weights) and the finatial budget (how much it costs).