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Laboratory's wall-to-wall inventory moving into new phase

Several months ahead of schedule, the Laboratory has inventoried more than 99 percent by dollar value of controlled personal property as part of its Labwide wall-to-wall inventory.

But the inventory soon moves into the important reconciliation phase, said John Tapia of Property Management (BUS-6) and project leader for the Labwide inventory.

Tapia said that the Lab has far exceeded milestones it set up for the inventory, noting that at this point in the process, it was estimated that the inventory would be a little more than 75 percent complete. "We took a very formal approach to this inventory; there wasn't any down time," said Tapia. "Richard Marquez, the associate director of administration, has given us the time and authority we need to conduct the inventory," he said, adding that no recordable safety incidents occurred during the inventory process, which began Feb. 3.

Nearly 80,000 items were identified as the baseline of items for inventory. These items have an acquisition value of about $1 billion. As of early June, Tapia said, more than 77,000 of those items had been inventoried.

Tapia said several organizations have had 100 percent of their controlled property items inventoried and accounted for, while other organizations have topped 98 percent. He said the NNSA considers 98.7 percent by dollar value as meeting requirements for inventory; 99.2 percent is considered excellent; and 99.5 percent by dollar value is considered outstanding.

Tapia said the wall-to-wall inventory is moving toward the reconciliation phase in which inventory records are examined to determine what controlled personal property has been inventoried and what hasn't been located. "We want to know can we account for [property] through the documentation or by physically locating it," said Tapia. He said BUS-6 notifies organizations when a piece of controlled personal property can't be located, adding that associate directors are receiving twice-a-month reports on the progress of the inventory.

Once the reconciliation phase is completed, the Lab then moves to the validation phase in which the National Nuclear Security Administration and Price Waterhouse Coopers, an independent auditor, will check on the accuracy of the inventory process, said Tapia.

The Lab will report its findings to the University of California and the Department of Energy/NNSA this fall.

Interim Laboratory Director Pete Nanos said in a May 21 all-employee memo that Lab employees have responded positively to the inventory. "Every Laboratory employees has obviously been very committed to showing that we, as a Laboratory, maintain accountability for our property."

Nanos also asked Lab workers to review their property accountability statements, verify that it is correct and address discrepancies. "I would like nothing more than to be able to report 100 percent accountability in this year's inventory and that we also brought back into inventory items that previously had been listed as lost or unlocated. Please help us reach that goal," Nanos said.

Tapia said that more than 700 controlled, personal-property items have been located that were not part of the inventory baseline.

As part of the wall-to-wall inventory, property administrators have gone to all accessible labs, office space and storage areas, closets, desks and bookcases to look for and scan bar-coded property subject to inventory.

BUS-6 has created a Web page with more information about the wall-to-wall inventory. It can be found at the Wall-to Wall Inventory page online. The Web page includes a list of frequently asked questions related to the wall-to-wall inventory, as well as contact information.

The Laboratory last conducted a wall-to-wall inventory of all bar-coded property in 1998; that inventory met the UC and DOE standards.

Lab workers who have questions about the wall-to-wall inventory can contact their property administrator or the BUS-6 property help line at 5-3230 or write to lanlproperty@lanl.gov by electronic mail.

-- Steve Sandoval

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