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Poole College of Management IT Student Consultants

Surplus and scrap equipment, Basic Procedures

On occasion, the Biology IT Department will receive older equipment that labs are no longer using and will be asked to surplus it.
Or, on occasion, we will be working on something and it is too old / broken to fix and we will need to dispose of it properly.
What are the rules for how we surplus items? It depends on the item!
The most important rule when it comes to surplus: Don’t throw any equipment away!
And, the second most important rule of surplus:If you’re not sure, just ask.
From the Duke surplus site:
All surplus property, including computers, that were purchased with Duke funds, are considered Duke property and must be processed through the Surplus Property Asset Disposition Tool for tracking purposes.
All Duke-owned equipment, from keyboards, to hard drives, to laptops, monitors, and even servers, must be disposed of in a Duke-approved manner. Items that are turned in to Duke Surplus are either reused or properly and securely disposed of.
There are two classes of equipment that we deal with in the Helpdesk
  1. Equipment Containing Data
    • This includes such things as: Laptops, Desktops, External or Internal Hard Drives, Cameras, Phones, Tablets, CDs, Floppy Disks, Bad USB Flash Drives, etc. Anything that can store user data is included in this category.
  2. Equipment NOT Containing Data.
    • This includes such things as: Monitors, Scanners, Keyboards, Mice, Misc. peripherals, office furniture, etc. This is a catch-all category for everything not containing data.
The basic process for disposal is basically the same, however there is greater liability in data-containing equipment. Any data-containing equipment found to be disposed of improperly, or added to the surplus list and not turned in, opens an investigation by the security office. And yes, they take data security very seriously.

Procedure

First, determine if the item is indeed scrap/surplus by testing the piece of equipment.
  1. Is it broken? If yes, it should be added to the surplus list
  2. If it’s not broken, is it useful to us?
    • For Laptops and Desktops, ask yourself the following questions:
      1. Can you see them being used for at least two years without having any issues in a lab environment?
      2. Can the machine run the most recent approved operating system well?
      3. Can the machine run the required pieces of biology software well?
    • For keyboards, mice, monitors, and other peripherals, if they are in decent, working condition and look presentable, tag them with a note stating that they have been tested, the date that they were tested, and put them in the closet or in the appropriate bin at the Helpdesk with the other available spare items. If not, add them to surplus.
    • For cables, use judgment. If we already have a large number of that specific type of cable at the Helpdesk, go ahead and put it with the surplus items. Duke Surplus will give it to a department that needs it.
Second, once the item has been determined to be scrap/surplus do the following.
  1. Tag the item with a piece of blue tape with the word “Surplus”
  2. Open the ‘Biology Master Inventory Spreadsheet’ in Evernote. (It’s under ‘For The Minions’ – ‘Documentation’)
  3. Go to the ’Salvage’ tab.
  4. Fill out all relevant fields: Manufacturer, Model, S/N, Description, Qty, and whether or not it’s working.
    ALL DATA-CONTAINING EQUIPMENT MUST HAVE SERIAL# FIELD FILLED OUT!
  5. Save Spreadsheet