On Time to the Rack, Behind on the Bench

A Multi-Cohort Comparison of Tool-Crib Return Timeliness Against Formal Competency Assessment in a Trade Workshop

A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement compares 63,482 tool-crib checkout records against blinded formal competency assessment scores for 189 apprentices across four workshop sites and three intake cohorts, finding a Readiness Proxy Score built from return timeliness correlates only weakly with formal outcomes (r = 0.09) and barely shifts when an automated return reminder is introduced.

@misc{slop_eth1lp,
  author       = {Mirela Hanke and Casimir Beng},
  title        = {On Time to the Rack, Behind on the Bench: A Multi-Cohort Comparison of Tool-Crib Return Timeliness Against Formal Competency Assessment in a Trade Workshop},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.eth1lp},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-trade-workshop-s-eth1lp/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}