Introduction to inventory management
Genebank collection management, perhaps better described as inventory management, primarily deals with the plant genetic resources physically stored by a genebank. (Many genebanks prefer the term "lot" or "sample" to "inventory"; however, in GGCE the term "inventory" is consistently used.)
When plant physical material enters the genebank, it may be divided for storage under different temperatures or other conditions and in different locations. A GGCE Inventory item holds important data including the item's storage location, the quantity on hand, and the parental lot.
GGCE provides the necessary tools for technicians to update the database as they go about their daily work in the genebank and maintain the up-to-date status of each inventory item. With GGCE, your genebank can record data pertaining to the acquisition of new material, storing, monitoring quantities, viability testing, regenerating, and ultimately distribution of material to germplasm requestors.
Before entering inventory data, you must enter some basic accession passport data into GGCE. Every inventory item in GGCE is related to an existing accession by the accession number. It is not, however, necessary to have complete passport information entered in the database for an accession before entering inventory data. For example, since GGCE expects an acceptable species to be indicated, when the species has not been determined, GGCE uses the Genus spp. for the taxon. For details on entering accession passport data, review the Accession documentation.
Once you have recorded basic accession passport data, you can register physical germplasm material as a new genebank inventory item and then individually track the quantity and location of each item.
In some respects, a genebank is analogous to a library. The accessions are the book titles, but on a library's shelves are the physical copies of the book – sometimes in different forms, such as hardbacks, softcovers, large print editions, and audio recordings. The library must first create an entry in their catalog for the title (similar to registering the accession passport data), and then register each physical volume and indicate where it is stored. (Another commonality: genebanks and libraries receive requests for their stuff!)
Seed genebanks typically have multiple lots for one accession, and each lot should always have its own inventory record. The physical germplasm will have its own identifier and be associated with an accession number, the parental inventory lot (if known), date of harvest, the germplasm's storage location, and other information – all of which can be entered into GGCE. Each inventory item listed in GGCE represents the germplasm in the collection, whether it's a jar or bag of seeds, seed packets, a plant in the field, or a set of sub-cultured in vitro germplasm.
Ideally, you will never need to create a new inventory record from scratch. New inventories come from regeneration, splitting out from an existing inventory, acquisition, etc.
Many steps and tasks are needed to manage and maintain a genebank's germplasm inventory. It is important for your genebank not to lose track of these tasks, and GGCE is designed so you can easily schedule and monitor them. In GGCE, you can schedule and record event actions and then quickly retrieve these later to determine their status. GGCE has filters for determining which tasks are in progress, those that haven't started, those that have been completed, and so on.
GGCE is a very comprehensive database; your genebank should not need to maintain germplasm inventory data in any supplementary database. Most genebank tasks apply to the handling of physical germplasm plant material and GGCE was designed to facilitate these universal genebank activities.
Inventory activities
Many of the activities listed below are relevant to managing inventory items.
- Develop genebank inventory maintenance policies
- Develop consistent naming conventions in the genebank for inventory items; also develop meaningful names for storage locations
- Add inventory data into the genebank's database
- Use the Acquisition tool to register new material
- Create an inventory record; name the inventory correctly, following your genebank's naming conventions and GGCE's requirements
- Print labels and apply to the inventory's container
- Enter sufficient location data so that the inventory can be located within the genebank
- Associate attachments (images, other file types) with their respective inventory items when the files exist
- Schedule processing/management tasks (inventory actions) to be completed:
- Count, weigh, place in storage, pull for planting, etc.
- Test for viability
- Split inventory
Inventory menu – for common inventory tasks
Selecting Inventory in the left menu will display GGCE's inventory management options. The menu options link to tasks and actions that are common for inventory.
- Inventory – lists existing inventory items and allows for adding new inventory items
- Inventory summary – provides a graphical overview of the composition of inventory
- Schedule – shows the overview of genebank actions on germplasm for a specified time period
- Inventory actions – provides access to all inventory action records
- Amount in storage – lists the sum of quantity of material on hand and count of items for selected accessions
- Update quantity – can be used to quickly update the quantity on hand by scanning barcode labels
- Inventory groups – can be used to manage arbitrary groups of germplasm (i.e. subsets)
- Acquisition – enables registration of new incoming material (including their accession-level records) with GGCE
- Storage navigator – a feature for locating stored inventory (lots) by site or storage location
- Split inventory – provides a means to duplicate the data from an original inventory item so that multiple items are generated in the database with the quantities subdivided among the items
Inventory naming conventions
The Inventory Number is the unique identifier given by the genebank to an individual inventory lot.
GGCE builds the Inventory Number from four components: the Inventory Prefix, Number, Suffix, and Type. The concatenation of these four components represents the complete Inventory Number. The combination of the four fields must be unique in the database.
The fourth field, Inventory Type, is appended to the previous three values and the resulting string becomes the unique identifier of the inventory item. This last field indicates in what form the germplasm exists: seed, plant, rhizome, in vitro, etc.
Similar to accession identifiers, you can generate the second field, the Inventory Number field, by entering a -1 in the field.
Is there an ideal naming convention? Yes: whatever works best for your genebank! Every genebank has its own considerations and typically develops genebank-specific naming conventions for its inventory lots.
One recommendation that all genebanks should consider is using the Inventory Number field, since GGCE has a feature to sequentially auto-number new inventory numbers. Note that the Inventory Prefix, Number, and Suffix do not need to match those of the Accession (and frequently do not).
Some organizations use the year of multiplication as the Prefix for inventory items. They may also use "BASE" as the Suffix for the seed stored in the base collection and "ACTIVE" to indicate lots in in the active collection. This is purely for convenience, as the Inventory Maintenance Policy better classifies the management type.
System inventory records
Whenever an accession record is created in GGCE, a system inventory record is automatically generated. System inventory records always have type codes indicated with ** (two asterisks).
This software-generated inventory record does not represent physical inventory.
If the system inventory record doesn't actually represent physical germplasm, what is its purpose? The GGCE database has many interrelated tables, and records in other tables can either relate to a specific inventory item or to the accession in general. Since every accession has its own system inventory record, records that link to that system inventory record link to the accession in general. Records using physical inventory links, on the other hand, link to a specific inventory record representing a physical germplasm lot.
Because they serve an important function, you cannot delete these system inventory records. You can edit them, but it is rarely necessary and not recommended. It is best to avoid changing any system inventory data.
Storage naming conventions
Some genebanks may feel they need more than four storage location fields, but usually four is sufficient. If really necessary, consider including two elements in the same field. For example, if a genebank has two storage rooms "A" and "B," and then uses similar naming conventions for the rows and shelves within, they could enter A-4 in the Location Section 1 field – indicating room A, row 4.
An example:
| GGCE field | Used to indicate... | Genebank examples |
|---|---|---|
| Location Section 1 | Two storage rooms with twelve rows each | A(lpha) or B(eta), 1 through 12 |
| Location Section 2 | Five racks in a row | A through E |
| Location Section 3 | Four shelves in a rack (1 is the top shelf...) | 1 through 4 |
| Location Section 4 | Box number | # |
Review the storage system above. Could you find the germplasm samples (the inventory) if you were given a layout of their genebank's storage area?
Some genebanks may put labels at the end of a shelf or row with starting and ending inventory numbers, but over time this may not be practical and eventually require relabeling the shelving or reorganizing the germplasm. Consider a naming convention for your shelving that is independent of the inventory items stored on the shelves. The storage locations should have permanent addresses. For example: Row A-1, Rack C, Shelf 1, Box 5.