Los Médicos Voladores

Operating the LMV Inventory Control System

• grocerygadgets.com

• Sign in (upper right) -- contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for username/password
• pull down List (upper left) to, e.g.: "High Sierra - Lynn's Hanger"
• you can then Add items to the list using the webportal by clicking the green +Add
• and/or - add/edit items from a smartphone app

• check the Status box once something is procured/in-hand; leave Status box unchecked if it still needs to be shopped for

Some more cool things about GroceryGadgets:

• you can download an app for your smartphone (iPhone/itouch/iPad, Android; BlackBerry and Nokia coming soon)
• you can scan Bar Code items using the smartphone app (and avoid typing anything)

Sample Images

Strategy for an LMV Inventory Control System

As we move pueblos to more of a "turn key" model (e.g. San Ignacio, Abreojos) we'll need (in addition to a lock-it-up approach) a decent "inventory control" system. Some initial thinking about requirements of such an Inventory Control system that might work for LMV:

• could be used to capture/maintain inventory lists for both:
  • turn-key clinic locations
  • -and- chapter storage (e.g. in the High Sierra case, we have a bunch of "stuff" stored in Lynn Meadows' hanger)
• inventory database would be stored in the "cloud" so that LMV members from different physical locales could view/update inventory status
• inventory database would sync to smartphones (iPhone/iPad, Android) so that inventory status can be updated "in place" (e.g. at San Ignacio clinic) without requiring Internet access
• inventory software capable of scanning barcodes for faster data entry

I did a bit of web searching to see what's available (at a price of "zero or small"). Oddly enough, I believe that an app that my wife and I have used this past year for our "grocery shopping database" fits the bill very nicely (laughs are OK at this point :-). Some specifics:

• product is called Grocery Gadget - grocerygadgets.com
• the cloud "web portal" is free... you can see this as noted above in Operating the LMV Inventory Control System:
  • grocerygadgets.com... Sign In
  • since this product is not intended for inventory control, one needs to use some nomenclature parallels:
    • a "List" would represent a physical location... e.g. pull down List to "High Sierra - Lynn's Hanger"
    • you'll see some items listed here, e.g. you can click on "Sony Portable DVD Player" and see details including a photo
    • of course some things (like the Coupons, Recipes tabs) need to be ignored
    • we might use the "Store" attribute to indicate which chapter "owns" the item, e.g. it might be stored in High Sierra but originally purchased by Reno
  • we can define categories of items, e.g. Dental, Medical, Medications, whatever
  • we can move items between lists, e.g. if an ADEC is loaned from HS to Reno
• the key is that there is also a Grocery Gadget app for the iPhone/iPad and for Android phones
  • the phone app can add, edit or delete items just like the web portal
  • the phone app can also scan barcodes for easy entry of a new item
  • the phone app runs with or without Internet access
  • the phone app auto-syncs with the web portal the next time Internet access is available
  • the phone app costs $4.99

See images above.