Best Practices Associated with Inventory Management System
An efficient Inventory Management System can let you rule the picking & packing processes like an overlord.
In this article PPS explores the unique strategies relating to best inventory management practices. The goal is to be getting rid of all the chaos, pain, and stress in daily repetitive tasks, such as picking, issuing, packaging, invoicing and more – so that you can focus on providing exceptional services to your customers and reap the rewards of your hardwork.
The market is overflowing with software systems that claim to provide you with the best features to manage your business. How do you find the right tool that works best for your business?
Below we discuss a few easy steps that you can take in order to implement an effective Inventory Management System:
Determine the Type of Inventory Management System You’re Willing to Choose
First of all, you have to determine if an investment in an Inventory Management System is appropriate for your business or not. Get started by narrowing down your search and doing your own research. Two search engines that we recommend for finding the best software are: Capterra & Software Connect. Both platforms offer product information, user reviews, ability to schedule a demo, comparison and analysis, and much more!
Optimize Your Inventory Picking and Packing Process
Strive for simplicity. Intelligent systems that offer robust processes and features should make it easy and fun for you and your team members to go about carrying your day to day activities. Cloud based tools that help you collect and manage data in real-time are a great way to provide accurate information and reduce errors. Inventory Picking can be optimized by having a system that organizes your warehouse, reduces footsteps, and tracks frequency and consumption of your inventory. Collection of this data will allow your warehouse staff to work more efficiently and increase productivity. The packing process can be a time-consuming activity and can require additional checks and balances that increase your overall time spent and further delay customer orders. But if a robust picking process is in place, these two activities go hand-in-hand with each other and speed up the later.
Colleen Rodericks (inFlow Inventory, Inventory Management Techniques and Best Practices) appreciates JIT technique for the obvious reason(s):
“The Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management technique helps with managing cash flow for a retailer. You only buy what you need from a vendor when you get a customer sales order.”
Perform Accurate Inventory Tracking
PPS gives utmost importance to Inventory tracking. Your warehouse shouldn't be empty for a long time because you have no idea when your items will come in. This is because you need to know how long you have to keep the items or how many of them you have in stock. If you don't want to waste your time, you should hire a company that is already in the business. Similarly, you don’t want to keep inventory for too long. You have to assess the demand of your products, seasonality, and accordingly determine your reorder quantities.
Solve All Sorts of Stock-Out Issues
For any stock-out problems, you need to make sure that you have enough products. When you don't have enough products, you can't solve your problems with your inventory. So if you don't have enough inventory, you should not expect your company to be successful. You should have a team doing the inventory on your behalf.
This is how Avery Walts (BigCommerce, Essential Guide to Effective Inventory Management) defines the importance of a sound inventory management system:
“When businesses don’t have a handle on the activity of their inventory, or worse, track it with outdated spreadsheets and data entry, the rest of the pieces, like order fulfilment, don’t fall into place.”
PPS is a b2b SaaS business based in Ann Arbor, Michigan with over 25 years of experience working in the Supply Chain Management industry for over 25 years. Their product iM3 SCM is an intelligent Warehouse Management Software that automates Inventory Management, Procurement, Order fulfillment, warehouse & facility management, asset management, work order management and more. Follow the steps discussed above and create an environment that enhances your overall productivity and efficiency and positively impacts your bottom line!
