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Bike repair co-op

A worked example: a community bike-repair co-op where volunteers fix members' bikes and the shared parts bin has to stay stocked. It puts Inventory, Purchases, and Projects to work together.

The problem it solves​

Two things go wrong in a shop like this. Parts run out mid-repair, and a bike sits half-fixed while nobody remembers what it's waiting on. Cobblr handles both by keeping the parts and the repairs in one workspace that talk to each other.

What you end up with​

  • The parts bin as inventory: cables, tubes, chains, each with a quantity, a location, and a reorder point.
  • Each bike in for repair as a project, moved across a status board from intake to done.
  • Repairs that unblock themselves. A repair task can wait on a part being in stock, and Cobblr flips it the moment that part arrives.
  • Restocking that mostly runs itself, from reorder point to drafted order.

Putting it together​

  1. Stock the inventory with the parts you go through. Set a reorder point on each, the count that means "order more". Bulk-add is a CSV import or a batch of scans.

  2. Turn on Purchases and let the shipped reorder wire run: a part that drops below its point drafts an order to its usual vendor. Walk through it in reorder alerts to purchase orders.

  3. Log each bike as a project with a status you move it through. Give a project tasks for the work, and point a task at the part it needs; if that part is out, the task sits blocked until stock arrives, then clears on its own.

  4. Run a kanban grouped by status for the repairs in flight, so a volunteer picking up a shift sees every bike and where it's stuck.

  5. Bring volunteers in as members with the grants their shift needs (adjust stock, move a repair along) and nothing more.

The payoff in practice​

A volunteer starts a repair, finds the shop is out of a cable, and marks the task as waiting on that part. The low cable has already drafted itself onto an order. When the order arrives and gets received, stock tops up and the waiting repair unblocks, all without anyone crossing a note off a whiteboard.