In the first part of Lesson 3, we'll start by explaining how the Inventory module is structured– the three levels of Inventory that you can have on Labstep. The Inventory module in Labstep is a powerful tool for managing your lab's resources. From tracking the general Category of items to a particular batch, Labstep enables you to meticulously record what you have in the lab and connect it to your research, so you can even automatically add samples created within an experiment to your Inventory!
Items
The most granular level of the Inventory module is Items. These represent the physical items you have in the lab. You can specify their location, amount remaining, and other metadata specific to the item i.e. Expiry Date, Lot number. Each item also has a unique QR code that you can print and scan, which makes it easy to specify exactly what was used in an experiment and can also speed up stock checks.
Resources
Resources can be used to group functionally identical items, such as different aliquots of the same sample or different batches of the same product e.g. Acetone or Cryopreserved Rat Kupffer Cells. If a Resource is not added to a Category, it will automatically be added to Uncategorised.
Resources can carry metadata fields that are common to all items of a particular resource, such as Manufacturer, Product Code, or Chemical Structure. They allow you to monitor the stock of particular consumables or reagents, including features such as alerts when the number of items remaining drops below a threshold and integration with the Order Management module.
The ‘Linked Experiments’ tab on the Resource page allows you to see all the experiments that used any resource item, while the Data tab gives you a summary of all the experimental data related to that resource across all specific items.
Resource Categories
Resource Categories are the highest level of the Inventory module. They can be used to further group resources into broad general buckets such as "Reagents," "Samples," and "Chemicals".
In addition to providing a way to organise and filter your Inventory, Categories also carry templates for the Resources and Items within them, allowing you to define the metadata fields expected/required at both the Resource and Item levels.
To manage categories, click on the cogwheel next to the category name. Please note that your ability to manage categories will depend on your permissions at the workspace level.
Typical Item-Resource-Category Structure
Example 1
Item: Acetic Acid Batch #324
Resource: Acetic Acid
Category: Stock Chemicals
Example 2
Item: Passage #1
Resource: Gibco™ Mouse (ICR) Inactivated Embryonic Fibroblasts
Category: Cell Lines
Example 3
Item: Blood Sample #3
Resource: Patient 240325
Category: Sample Database
Conclusion
Labstep's Inventory module offers a comprehensive solution for managing your lab's resources efficiently. With its structured approach across three levels – Resource Categories, Resources, and Items – Labstep provides a powerful organisational framework. By utilising Resource Categories, users can group resources effectively and standardise the metadata schema through templates. Resources allow for detailed tracking, enhancing reproducibility. Meanwhile, Items provide granularity, enabling tracking of specific batches or bottles with unique identifiers or full traceability and stock management. Later on, we'll learn how crucial setting up your Inventory properly is when you link it to your research!
☞ Knowledge Check:
What are the differences between Resource Categories, Resources and Items?
If I wanted to represent a specific plasmid sequence on Labstep, would it be a Resource, Item or Category?
How would you structure your Inventory?
This lesson is part of the "Labstep 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started" course. View all lessons here.