Software for workshop - electronic components stock management
Since my last update to this answer, I was lucky enough to find an online system that meets most of my (and the OP's) requirements for managing small electronic components inventory. The service is called Parts-in-place.
The system is based on a typical workflow of small electronics products companies (so the site says - how would I know, I'm just a hobbyist) that incidentally supports the work of more serious hobbyists. The workflow looks like this:
After signing up, you start by importing your parts database into the system Parts Library. That's the central repository where all information about your parts will be stored. For a minimal setup (like mine), you'll only need to fill out a few columns, such as the Company's Part Numbers and Description. This is easily done thanks to the systems excellent integration with Excel. It is worth to note that before using the system, the user must define a standard coding for its parts (the above mentioned Company's Part Number) which will be used throughout the system.
Then you create a Bill of Materials which will represent an electronic board that your company (or the hobbyist) plans on building. You specify the part numbers and quantities that will be used. This information will later be used for defining necessary part orders.
Then you define how many boards are to be built based on a single Bill of Materials. This will later be used to define Parts Orders, in which the system confronts the required materials against the available inventory. You can later add more parts or change quantities in the order, before placing it with the suppliers.
Once the order arrives, you record it on the Part Arrivals tab.
Then, there are tabs for recording actual assemblies and parts transfer from inventory. Since I don't have such a factory, I don't really use those tabs. But you can if you want to play factory.
At any moment you can update inventory information using the Parts Write-offs and Inventories. The former can be used to account for parts that were lost for any reason or that were used and not tracked by the system workflow. The latter can be used to update part counts based on ad-hoc inventories performed.
The system is really easy to use, has a nice, modern and very responsive user interface. The free account (the one I signed up for) limits you to a single user, 3 BOMs and about 100 parts per BOM. I haven't reached any of them yet.
I wanted to highlight that the system features an extraordinary integration with Excel, both for importing and exporting. For importing, it does a great job identifying column names automatically and it's really forgiving regarding formatting and other trash that you may have left in your spreadsheet. The export function results in a nicely formatted spreadsheet that may be used elsewhere without problems. It's XLS format is recognized by Excel and OpenOffice Calc as well.
Here's how I think the system meets the OP's requirements:
(Yes) free or low cost software - it has a free account available.
(Yes) Not too complicated - it's really easy to use. Also, since it's a service, you don't have to go to the trouble of setting the software up or installing anything.
(Yes) Locations feature (Shelf 1 -> Box 1) - you can determine where the parts are stored.
(Yes) Stock/shopping history - the system lets you control shopping history pretty well. Orders also reflect on the stock upon arrival.
(No) Categories with tree structure - the system only presents a flat structure for parts. You can workaround this by selecting a clever prefixes for part numbers. But to me, not having categories makes things simpler. To me, less is more in this case.
(Yes) Functionality to assign part to projects - that's exactly what BOMs are for.
(Yes) Client-server architecture would be nice - it's an online service set up online, it's client-server.
(Yes) Functionality that allows me prepare shopping lists - it let's you prepare shopping lists based on BOM's and how many boards you say you want to build.
There are a few implied requirements that the system doesn't meet:
(No) It isn't open source.
(No) Since it's a service, you normally won't have it running on your servers. If the company goes bankrupt, your data is gone. But since it provides a nice Excel export feature, you can have all your data backed up and ready for use in other ways. Also, the company says they can setup Parts-in-Place to run at your servers, but I suspect this may be expensive.
Here's a screenshot of the BOM screen:
PS. I'm not affiliated with Parts-in-Place in any way.
Below is the original evaluation I had made of other systems.
zParts - Free and open source. But it is a bit too simple for the requirements. I guess one could probably use Excel to do the same zParts does.
PartKeepr - Web-based built around PHP, JavaScript and MySQL. Didn't actually install it, but read through some of its docs.
Ciiva - another online service for BOM management with integrated components database search. Seems pretty powerful yet simple, but I still couldn't find a way to manage my own inventory of components, but there's gotta be one as it let's you resell excess inventory.
My latest Google search on the topic - nothing really interesting, but maybe the search terms may help you filter the results better.
PS. I'm not affiliated with any of those companies in any way.
We have done an evaluation for my company some months ago because Excel Spreedsheet has reached its bottleneck when multiple engineers are working on the same product at the same time, track of changes, tractability. Finally, three commercial options left for us, PartsinPlace, Aligni, Ciiva. Though we have also looked into SiliconExpert and ArenaSolution, which are more powerful and professional. But the cost can easily exceed $1000/user/year. We cannot figure out the complex licensing modules and obviously we are not looking for an ERP solution...
PartsinPlace is simple to start but lack of features we needed, and not cheap for the limited features. It's fine to try if you are mainly focus on inventory management. Ciiva seems to be a much more professional, and its embedded component database is quite amazing, provides real-time pricing and stock, lifecycles and alternatives. However as mentioned earlier, it's not straightforward about how to manage inventory because you need to create some custom attributes first. Aligni also provides rich features and more like a MRP solution but its price is out of our budget, even several times of PartsinPlace...
Pricing:
http://partsinplace.com/pricing/, free version for 1 user and up to 105 units
http://ciiva.com/bill-of-materials-software/subscriptions, free version for 3 users and starts with 3,000 units, up to 10,000 units if you invite friends (like dropbox)
http://www.aligni.com/#signup, no free version, paid version starts at $39 per month, up to 400 units. The ENTERPRISE version costs $199 per month, up to 10,000. What happened if my parts exceed 10,000?
Features:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnTQyJeLrBM&feature=youtube_gdata
http://ciiva.com/bill-of-materials-software/screenshots
http://www.aligni.com/#features
Like Sean Boddy above, I am not trying to be sarcastic, etc either.
If you are a hobbyist and just trying to keep your sanity while keeping track of many small components like resistors capacitors, ICs and connectors, etc, the most practical system is to use index or Rolodex cards. ( Rolodex are preferred because they stay in place and are easier to thumb thru quickly.)
For larger parts get some small parts plastic drawer cabinets and label them with letters and numbers - letters identify the cabinets and letters for the drawers. Get the kind that allow you to divide the drawers into 2-3-4 bins with slide in dividers. Glue the dividers in place. I have some drawers undivided (for larger comps or larger quantities of the the same part), others divided in half, some in quarters etc. For many ICs I might only have 2,3,4 of a given type, so a 1/4 drawer is fine and space efficient too. The important thing is that you can find that single IC quickly when you need it! (As you know it won't do you one bit of good to have it, if you can't find it!)
DO NOT WRITE the name or part number of component on the drawer, just the identifying number. Once you accumulate a dozen or so cabinets with 30-50 drawers apiece, you will find yourself in a mental daze trying to find a part by reading all of those little labels. Instead, divide your Rolodex file into categories with appropriate divider cards. "Connectors", "Digital ICs" "Analog IC's", "Op-Amps", "Voltage Regs", "LEDs", "Hardware" etc. Write the name or part # of the component in bold ink letters at the top of the index card and the cabinet-drawer # in bold PENCIL as well (so you can change the location easily when that becomes necessary). At the bottom of the card fill in other important information about the component. E.g. voltage rating, supply voltage, distributor part #, package info, etc.
Don't try to categorize the cabinets and drawers either, just assign new drawers as you get new parts to store. The letter-number system is so efficient, you'll be able to locate components in less than 10 seconds even with randommly assigned drawers. From time to time you can regroup drawers simply by transferring components and rewriting the cabinet-drawer number on the Rolodex cards - which you orignally wrote in pencil for exactly this reason. In this way you can keep similar components in the same area of you cabinet array for convenience and visual hunting.
For surface mount discretes like resistors, caps, diodes etc. I use small No. 1 manilla coin envelopes to store the parts rather than the small parts cabinet drawers. I stack these envelopes in larger plastic parts drawers like you can get from U-Line, etc. If you pick the right size drawer and the right size dividers you will find that the coin envelopes stack perfectly in several neat rows across the width of the drawer. You can store hundreds of component types in just a few of these drawers. Use a separate drawer for each component size (e.g. 0603, 0805, 1206). Write the type, value, tolerance and size of the enclosed component on each envelope and stack the envelopes in VALUE ORDER in the divided drawers. If you can get a few different color coin envelopes it will help you organize a little better. White, dark manilla and light manilla are the most commonly available. (I use white for capacitors and mnailla for resistors.) I don't attempt to keep track of standard value resistors or caps in the Rolodex system, it's just as simple to go directly to the drawers and flip thru the envelopes. As you add new values and sizes to your collection, simply write up a new envelope - takes 5 seconds and you don't have to wait for your PC to boot up! I keep extra envelopes in each drawer.
Years ago I tried orgainzing all of my parts ( probably about 500 different types at the time) with a spreadsheet. Too impractical for normal shop use for a number of reasons! I learned the system described above from a friend and never looked back. I can only imagine how many times I would have had to update all of the information every time I changed PCs or updated operating systems!