INSIGHT started as a simple inventory tracking system (circa 1996), but we continue to find ways to optimize these tools more than 20 years later. Recently, we made changes to the “leader-follower” system to help in warehouse management.
What we've seen in actual usage is the need for storage of a large number of small items in a single container — a storage box for example. The technique we use and recommend works like this:
Create an item for the box. Categorize it as an asset that's not for sale, and assign a suitable condition such as “Tested, good condition” or “Item stocked without testing”.
Then start filling the box with smaller items (say cables, for example). As you put each item in the box, update it to “follow” the box. The result is that the item you placed in the box now inherits the condition and, more importantly, the location of the box itself. So if you move the box from one rack to another and record the update, every item “following” the box is updated automatically. This technique lets you accurately update 100s of items at once.
As of v16.150, we added some refinements. To start with, when an item becomes a follower, we now explicitly set the location and condition to match the leader item. So if the leader is on shelf 2 and in “Tested, good condition”, the follower is set to the same condition and location. If you later decouple the follower, it retains the location and condition last set on the leader until you change it.
Another change involves attachment to jobs. While followers cannot be directly attached to a job, if the leader gets attached, all the followers are implicitly attached as well. This means they show up as linked items as long as they are connected to the leader. If you unlink a follower item, it is unlinked from the leader item's attached job because the implicit link from the leader is now gone. This has been the case for many years, but it's now shown more clearly in follower items.
As a further step, we added test 19 to the “sweeper” — our comprehensive system analysis suite. It automatically updates any follower item whose condition and/or location does not match the leader.