Cataloging New Filament Stock With MarsWork Filament Management Kit

As we described in an earlier post, it's very easy to manage open filaments by color using the MarsWork Filament Management System.  But, managing new stock, when first starting, requires a bit iof a different approach unless you want to open each new spool to print a color ID tag.  We didn't want to do that since we work in a humid environment.

At home I have little need to track new stock because I typically use a just-in-time strategy when buying filament.  But, at work we tend to buy in larger lots to take advantage of Bambu's bulk pricing.

We decided to create a slightly different ID Tag to use with the hook & loop cards from MarsWork. With new stock we assign a color based on the filament type and include the Bambu stock number and color for the text.

Each column of the card represents a stack of filament.

Here is our initial New Stock Card layout.

Initial New Stock Card

It represents exactly how the stacks of filament were located on our shelf.  Yellow ID tags represent PLA Basic spools.  Green represents ABS spools.  Black represents ASA spools and white is used to represent TPU.  We will assign new color as needed.  

But, the first thing that stood out is how many duplicates we had of certain colors randomly located throughout the stacks.   This provoked us to reorganize the stacks by Bambu Stock ID number.  This should minimize unnecessary duplication.  Why we ordered 3 of any one color is anybody's guess.

re-organized Stacks and ID Tags for New Stock

 This re-organized card was then included in the box with the other filament management cards.

Complete card set for organizing Filament.

The blue card is installed filament.  The gray cards are opened & stored filaments,  And, the green card(s) will keep track of our new stock.

we are also considering the use of the MarsWork system to keep track of replacement parts, like new print heads, etc, and other expendables like nozzle wipers.  It's a very versatile system.