With regards to actual equipment inventories, the best advice I ever received as an incoming CO was to have the company lay its gear out 1 platoon at a time. After each is inventoried, have the platoon pack it away in their cage/area, and you as the inventorying officer put a personal lock on it until all platoons have been inventoried. Doing so sends the message that equipment accountability is a priority and taken seriously, as well as eliminates the possibility of platoons cross loading to cover shortages (which happens) and throwing off a true indication of where the company stands equipment wise.

-Br