What is Inventory Management?
Inventory management is a collection of tools, techniques, and strategies for storing, tracking, delivering, and ordering inventory or stock. The importance of these processes running smoothly and efficiently is directly related to a business’s success. Warehouse staff and business owners should make it a priority to gain as much knowledge as they can about inventory management so they can work to achieve organization and keep productivity high. For businesses carrying inventory, understanding and effectively managing their inventory is vital to ensure optimum profitability and cash flow within the business.
Some of the most important factors within your warehouse management processes include:
- Organization of Information
- Organization of Inventory
- A Quality System to Keep Track of Everything
Keeping Inventory Records Prompt
One important thing to pay attention to is making sure inventory records are updated promptly. To stay competitive, businesses need to make decisions fast and have access to reliable information. All key staff should have access to inventory related records in a timely fashion so that inventory can be managed and re-stocked accordingly. An example of such is tracking when the last time an item sold. If it has not been in demand for a year, there is no reason to have it taking up room on your warehouse shelves. This may call for you to drop the price and hopefully get some return on what was paid for the item.
Organization of Inventory
One of the most important qualities of a successful warehouse is organization. The physical products need to be placed in the warehouse in a way that all staff members can easily find them. There should be a system in place dictating the process in which a worker locates a product. Whether it’s by aisle, bin, shelf, number, etc- no one should have to walk around in circles looking for a particular product. This will speed up processes when it comes to placing and retrieving inventory from the warehouse. In addition, it will prevent mess and clutter, allowing you to utilize all the space you have productively. Another good tip is to split inventory into groups based on how fast the product turns, profitability/etc and then analyze these categories separately.
Adopt a Quality Inventory Management Platform
An optimal solution minimizes data entry and enables the flow of accurate inventory financial information – from the store clerk, through to the purchasing officer, and across to management. This ensures everyone is able to make informed decisions in a timely manner. Many businesses have thousands of dollars worth of unsold products on their shelves, money that most small businesses cannot afford to lose. An inventory management system that gives reports and other management advice to the owners in real time would be a solution to this common problem
Knowing Which Platform is Right for You
There are an overwhelming number of inventory management software options available to you, many of them being very similar to one another. It can be agreed upon that the method of using pen and paper or manually entering the information during your inventory management processes can get messy and confusing. Especially with a growing business, one cannot possibly keep track of every bit of inventory without some sort of automated system. The systems available to you will more often than not be a standard software which keeps track of products going in and out. However, to truly excel in managing your warehouse processes, you need to utilize a customizable solution.
What is a Customizable Solution?
The difference between a standard inventory management system and a customizable solution is the ability to create features which are not automatically included within a standard software package. Most systems will be able to customize to the point of adopting your brand logo and color scheme but do not go far beyond that. The most customizable system out there is SkuNexus. This order/inventory/warehouse management system is made for your unique business, unlike most systems which have you adjust your workflow to fit their inventory management software. SkuNexus works with you to plan out and build out features that will help your processes run smoothly and efficiently.
