Organizing used parts in the DIY bicycle shop
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Transcript of Organizing used parts in the DIY bicycle shop
Organizing Used Parts
in the DIY Bicycle Shop
By Casey Mirch
Presented at Bici! Bici! 2013April 12-14, 2013Hosted by Spokeland
Wouldn't it be great if a client could...
Find a part they need quickly
Find their part onceAvoid trial & error
Avoid surprises: fit, compatibility, hard-to-see damage
I, and clients, spend huge amounts of time looking through badly-sorted parts bins, setting aside more or less obviously unusable or irrelevant parts. Inexperienced clients have even less knowledge about what's good and compatible, and there's not always a skilled volunteer to look through bins with them.Then there are those days when the part you thought would work turns out to have some damage you didn't look for.
Too bad our parts come to us...
Incomplete
Worn
Damaged
Everyone can think of many examples on their own.
Too bad our clients and volunteers...
Come and go...Resulting in inconsistent of sorting/organization
Don't necessarily know a lot about bicycles...So unusable and incomplete parts wind up with good parts
E.g., seatposts: how would you organize them into two buckets? Integrated vs. straight? Complete & straight vs. incomplete & sketchy? Smaller vs. bigger diameters?How many other volunteers might choose a different system?
What happens to a new used part?
Evaluation: first, throw out the junk.
Sorting: spend the time to investigate, organize, and stow what's good.
In actual practice, both jobs often fall to the client looking through bins.
Aids to Evaluation
Use simple language
Ohio City Bicycle Co-op Wiki, Shop Manual
http://ohiocitycycles.org/wiki/
Acknowledge Ohio City Cycles' site for the basic ideas of evaluation and sorting.Having a wiki is a cool thing. Very collective/cooperative.
Aids to Evaluation
A wiki is great, but the shop environment is inherently low-tech.
Provide information where clients can see it.
Salience!Who ever looks at the bookshelf or the shop manual in the corner?
Aids to Organization
(Again:) Provide information where clients can see it.Provide informative signage/labeling
State your norms for sorting
Keep instructions close to parts
Include charts and diagrams where appropriate
Every part looked at gets put back in the right place or the wrong place.
Proposed: the Part Guide Card
Explanatory text and diagrams for context
List elements to inspect and verify
List variables affecting compatibility and fit
Additional tables and diagrams for needed detail
Pass around samples.This approach isn't specific to any particular domain. I offer a general framework for approaching any part.Inspect table is for evaluation: separating things worth sorting/trying from junk. That should be aimed at clients of all knowledge levels. The most safety-critical, deal-breaking, and common issues should be at the top.Variables table is for sorting/organizing. The most essential variables should be listed first. It's OK if that gets into detail and esoterica; it may lead people to the things they didn't know were there to be learned.
Possible Variations on the Part Guide Card
A non-laminated sheet without narrative text to affix to major parts
Highly abbreviated inspect + variables labels to affix to smaller parts or tags
Procedure Guide Cards near tools or fixtures to describe mechanical operations
Frames, forks, etc., are complicated and may be worth the time to write variables on a card.Labels might suit cranks, handlebars, derailleurs, etc. Durability is an obvious challenge.Examples for procedure cards: truing wheels, tethered to truing stands; adjusting hubs, hung near cone wrenches or bench vise.
Other ideas
Zip-tie an example of a part to the outside of bins. (Or glue examples to small part drawers.)
Spokeland's chain-and-spoke wheel hanging fixtures work pretty well.
Add your own ideas!
Open up for discussion of other ideas and feedback on suggestions herein.
Resources
http://ohiocitycycles.org/wiki/
http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/ (Contribute!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ohio City Cycles' site was a model for much of this presentation.BikeCollectives.org is a wiki to which stakeholders in any bike collective are welcome to contribute.If you want to know about variation in bike stuff, Wikipedia has it. Plus, good quality diagrams available for your reuse under Creative Commons licenses.