BioWare Blog: Equipping Your Squad

Mass Effect 2 lead combat designer Christina Norman returns to the BioWare blog to discuss the mechanics that have been put in place to make inventory management a little easier. Or at least that's the idea:
Squad Inventory
Whenever Shepard finds an upgraded weapon he scans it with his omni-tool, uploading detailed data to his ship. Using that data, this ship's armory can replicate the weapon, making it available to any squad member trained to use that weapon type. For example, if you find a superior shotgun, your armory will fabricate copies, making that shotgun model available to any squad member with shotgun training. This gets rid of tedious inventory management tasks, like unequipping and transferring items between squad members.
The word "tedious" suggests that inventory management is an undesirable task. Personally, I think acquiring, upgrading, and equipping the proper items is a big part of the role-playing experience.