Ordering, inventory, and the reagent that ran out
Lesson 4 of 6 · Running a group
1 · Learn the move · Template pattern
The reagent that ran out on Thursday costs a week when its lead time is six days, and it repeats because the information lives in heads: who used the last aliquot, who meant to reorder. The template externalizes it: one sheet, one row per item - catalog number, location, current count, reorder trigger, lead time, owner - plus a ten-minute weekly ritual: counts updated, every row below its trigger ordered. The model drafts the sheet from your stock list and sets triggers from usage and lead time, but it never invents a count, a price, or a lead time - those facts come from your orders and your shelves, and a plausible inventory is more dangerous than an empty one, because the lab trusts it. Rows it cannot fill stay [NEEDS: ...] until the first real count.
Build my lab inventory sheet from this stock list and order history: [paste]. Columns: item / catalog no. / location / count / reorder trigger / lead time / owner. Rules: counts, prices and lead times only from my data - gaps are [NEEDS: first count] or [NEEDS: lead time from last order], never estimates. Set each trigger from usage rate x lead time from my order history where it exists. Add the 10-minute weekly ritual as a checklist.
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
The polymerase ran out mid-week for the third time this year, the person who used the last tube assumed someone else had reordered, and the vendor's lead time turned a Wednesday problem into a next-Thursday problem. Your order history for two years sits in a folder of confirmation emails nobody has ever mined.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.