Still Learning - How to Inventory your kit

[DonFromTX]

This is the second time I have actually caught this type error, but several other instances I suspect were the same nature. If you notice the quantity on the inventory sheet for bag 2772, then look at what the quantity on the bag actually is (first item only)! This helps my suspected insanity immensely, and explains to me that I did not lose things afterall!!.

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[DanWright]

What has been the error rate you have found in the kits for the RV-12 from Vans? We have all the sheet metal coming at one time and part of my crew is advocating not opening later kits until we need them

 

[rgmwa]

What has been the error rate you have found in the kits for the RV-12 from Vans? We have all the sheet metal coming at one time and part of my crew is advocating not opening later kits until we need them

You have 30 days to inventory the contents and report any missing items, after that you will have to pay for replacement parts. I've had a few small items missing (bolts, rivets, ets) from each kit so far, and in one case (fuselage kit) there were several bags missing. Van's asked me to double check because some of the parts in those bags were expensive items. It pays to do the inventory early, even though it's tedious work.

As Don said. Given the number of components in the kit, Vans do an outstanding job of packaging everything up. They really have it down to a fine art.

 

[DonFromTX]

I have found their quality control is fantastic! I ordered all the kits at once too, and opened all of them. Inventory was a lot of work, but I found NOTHING missing or damaged! This example caught me by surprise, I had not thought to check to see if the inventory and the bag info agreed, and is just nit picking what is a well packed and complete shipping system. I also had an issue with 1100-08 nutplates. Really very small insignificant errors. .

 

[pilottangocharlie]

As a hopefully soon to be builder I have been pondering about how I would like to inventory all the parts of this huge puzzle. How many of the MS21042-08 nuts are actually contained in the bag? 2 or 8? Just curious which one wins?

 

[DonFromTX]

Only two are in the bag. Usually I find the bag descripion of contents to be correct, except they give us little "gifts" from time to time of extra rivets or screws or such. I am not sure if that is an actual error, or to allow us to drill out a rivet or toss a platenut that has no threads cut in it without having to order a new one. Of course many small items, including screws and nuts and washers are not in the plastic bags, but in a brown paper bag with a staple to hold the stuff in. Once you open those bags, you stand the chance of loss from the open bag, and you sure cannot count every washer or nut.
Inventory is a huge task really, especially of you get the whole kit at once as I did. I abbreviated the inventory, obviously you cannot count the 12,500 LP4-3 rivets to be sure you were not shorted, I sort of skipped over small parts count and concentrated on the expensive stuff. You would have to add a lot of time to building if you actually counted every last item. My faith in Vans was well founded, they make sure everything is there and properly packed, you will have to look very hard to find shortages..

 

[BigJohn]

Just a few additiona points:

Only two are in the bag. Usually I find the bag descripion of contents to be correct, except they give us little "gifts" from time to time of extra rivets or screws or such. I am not sure if that is an actual error, or to allow us to drill out a rivet or toss a platenut that has no threads cut in it without having to order a new one. Of course many small items, including screws and nuts and washers are not in the plastic bags, but in a brown paper bag with a staple to hold the stuff in. Once you open those bags, you stand the chance of loss from the open bag, and you sure cannot count every washer or nut.
Inventory is a huge task really, especially of you get the whole kit at once as I did. I abbreviated the inventory, obviously you cannot count the 12,500 LP4-3 rivets to be sure you were not shorted, I sort of skipped over small parts count and concentrated on the expensive stuff. You would have to add a lot of time to building if you actually counted every last item. My faith in Vans was well founded, they make sure everything is there and properly packed, you will have to look very hard to find shortages..

Most rivets are counted by weight, so there will always be extras.

Watch out for bags with revision numbers - sometimes they don't match the inventory sheets because they haven't yet been updated to the same level. I made Van's aware of a few of these as I inventoried my kits, so most of these errors should be fixed by now.

If you ordered any optional kits - lighting, wheel pants, etc., there will be some overlap in the parts, and you will end up with extras.

Remember that some identical parts go by different nomenclature. I handled this by putting both names on the front of the drawers I used to keep parts in.

This is just a suggestion. Get either a large parts cabinet with many drawers, or a bunch of the flat boxes with lots of compartments. Make extra dividers out of metal or plastic so you will have enough slots for all the different parts. (I used a hot glue gun to fix them in place.) Inventory all the small parts within the 30 day period, and as you do place them in your storage containers, whichever type you choose. Better to know in advance if you are missing anything so you can re-order and have them on hand when you need them. Here is a photo of my small parts cabinet. If I had received all the kits at once I would probably have needed at least two of these.

 

[DonFromTX]

Closer to 6 than 2 I think John. I have far more than that, and still have some paper bags I have just left alone.
Although I am "finished" with the wings and tailcone, I notice I still have bags in that section of my cabinet. I am today going to take another look at those bags in those sections. I suppose I will find the "extra" rivets and overages.
Something I now wish I had done far earlier, is to get out of the bag number game and into the item nomenclature. As you get better, you know you want a particular platenut or washer, it is far easier to go to the "washers" section and get the one you want, rather than going thru the drill of looking it up on the sheet, go find the bag, and dole out a washer or platenut. Thru familiarity of use, you can spot a particular piece of hardware from across the room! It also avoids errors, rather than sifting thru a bag with 6 different types of platenuts, you can go to the compartment with ONLY THAT EXACT platenut in it.

 

[Mich48041]

A place for everything and everything in its place

Some builders (myself included) have spent hours, perhaps days all total, looking for parts. Some have given up and asked for help on VansAirforce or called Van's Aircraft customer support (as if they know where you put stuff). The easy way to keep track of parts is to put each item in a unique location that is labeled. In addition, an index of part locations needs to be either printed out or kept in a computer file. Then when you need a part, it can be easily found in an alphabetical list or by a computer search that pinpoints the exact location such as cabinet 3, drawer B6; or egg carton 7, hole 11.
I know how anxious builders are to get started building. Who wants to waste time inventorying parts and cataloging them? But time spent at the beginning by organizing and indexing will be repaid many times over during the course of the build.
Now where did that tool go? I just used it a few minutes ago.
Joe

 

[LittleJoeA]

Small Parts

So far, I have been keeping everything sorted by Van's Bag number or Sub-kit number.

I transfer everything from the small paper bags to Zip lok bags and write the "Bag Number" and each part number on the bag.

An exception to this is for small solid rivets, which I store in labeled small boxes.

I have a similar method for sub-kits which are often wrapped in plastic. When I unwrap the plastic to inventory the parts, I take the small sheet metal parts and put them in some rather large zip lok bags I got from Target I put the parts that will fit in bags sorted by "sub-kit" number. The larger parts I mark with the sub-lot number.

All this stuff is then generally stored in the Factory Crate (usually the skins and large part) or a shelf in the shop

All this marking and bagging can be done in the house, in front of the TV.

Then, I mark on the plans the sub-kit or Bag Number the parts are from. This usually, not always, saves long searches for parts.

The fuselage kit is due next week with many more parts. We will see how my method works for that.

Most of all do things in a way that is fun not drudgery.

 

[flion]

Having gone through iterations of this building the -6A, I have been much better organized with the -10. Standard hardware from Van's is seldom called out in the instructions by bag number. I organize all such parts by their actual part number and combine same part from multiple bags. That way I don't have to figure out which bag I should be looking in for an AN3-12A bolt; I just find the bolt in my parts rack. Bags with RV specific parts, though, like the nylon blocks, small gussets, or the like, get their own drawer in the parts rack, labeled with the bag number, and I keep a bag inventory sheet handy so I can easily find which drawer to look in for a particular part.

I don't worry about quantities too much. I had a lot of hardware left over from the -6A. Not just rivets, even bolts, nuts, and fluid fittings were left because I made substitutions where bolt length didn't suit me or a modification to accommodate my FWF or avionics required hardware changes. Speaking of which, I ordered a whole set of bolts from ACS just to replace short or buggared ones. Later, doing the avionics, I got a lot of screws, nuts, clips, etc. all the way down to 4-40. Then I discovered I needed a lot of adel clamps, and then metal nuts when I got to the FWF. Eventually, I broke down and ordered fastener kits from GAHCO, even a cotter pin kit; rather than continually ordering a dozen things here, a few there. I'll want those extras for maintenance anyway (I've already replaced the large cotter pins in my wheel nuts several times). So for the -10, I replenished the spares I've got on hand. What with the extra equipment going in, I'm already making a dent in the smaller fasteners.

 

[DonFromTX]

I can endorse your system Patrick. If I had it to do over again, I would unbag all stuff, and label it like the plans call out.