Three Types of Inventory

Starting an inventory system is hard when you begin with the difficult items — bulky, infrequent, or sourced from unreliable suppliers. That is a mistake. 80% of your supplies are easy to manage: inexpensive, reliably sourced, and stored in fixed locations. Start there.

Type 1: Always in Stock

These are the day-to-day items your operation depends on: screws, paper, gloves, common components.

Approximately 80% of your inventory should be Type 1.
Managed with Kanban cards at fixed storage locations.
Automatic reorder when a card is scanned at the reorder point.
Set minimum quantities based on supplier lead time plus a safety buffer.

As the Inventory Manager (Irene), these are your highest priority. A well-run Type 1 system means workers never have to ask “do we have any left?” They know: when the bin is empty, the card is scanned, and more is on the way.

Type 2: Infrequently, But Reliably Needed

Expensive or bulky items needed occasionally. Examples: specific refrigerator variants for custom builds, specialty tools, seasonal supplies.

How to manage Type 2 items

Use the Project Management Module: Create projects, assign items to a bill of materials, and purchase once the project is finalized.
Create a Trading-Card-Style Order Card Binder: Keep Order Cards for Type 2 items in a physical binder instead of on a shelf. Scan only when the item is actually needed for a job.

Type 3: One-Off Orders

Items you order once and probably never again — for example, a specific product a customer requests that you do not normally stock.

Arda tracks these in the Order Archive without requiring a Kanban card.
No permanent shelf space or card needed.
Place the order and let the system record it for reference.

Continuous Improvement

Evaluate your supplies on an ongoing basis. The goal is to move more items from Type 2 to Type 1 as you understand consumption patterns better. Every item on automatic replenishment is one fewer stockout and one fewer fire drill.

The benchmark: If you can move 10% of your Type 2 items to Type 1 each quarter, your operation becomes measurably more reliable within a year.