Keep the work moving.

An experiment can take days to prepare, yet a missing everyday consumable can still interrupt the plan. Gloves, sample tubes, pipette tips, and cleaning materials may be split between benches and shared storage, with different people taking supplies throughout the week. Tana helps a laboratory keep a shared record of these physical items, giving researchers somewhere to check what has been counted and where it belongs before they begin preparing the materials for another session at the bench.

Build the inventory around the storage arrangement your lab already uses. Name shelves, drawers, and supply areas clearly, and separate products where size or reference matters. Add photos to help distinguish similar packaging. Where you record reagent stock, use the product identifiers your team already recognizes, so a search lands on the right shelf. Quantities belong to particular storages, so the combined item total can be checked alongside the amount actually recorded near the bench where someone intends to work.

When a delivery arrives, add its quantity to the place where it is stored. Record consumption and update affected storages when materials move. Agree on counting units before several people start entering quantities: a rack, a box, and an individual tube should not mean the same thing in the record. Low-stock thresholds can draw attention to items whose recorded total has fallen. The team can use that prompt to review the physical stock and the work ahead, then decide what needs replenishing.

A useful first step is one shared consumables shelf. Label the storage with a QR code, make the items searchable, and export a filtered CSV for a periodic count. Tana is a practical layer for everyday inventory: the consumable, the quantity counted, and the shelf or drawer holding it. Within that scope it helps colleagues leave clearer information for one another and makes routine supply checks less dependent on the memory of whoever last opened a box.