Inventory control is the process of keeping the level of stock in business in a way that enables business owners to meet customer demands and to cut down on costs. This is done through inventory tracking and maintaining goods, as well as making decisions that will result in obtaining more profit out of the stock and planning purchases.
Using the right tools to control inventory will help to improve the management of orders, increase profitability, and have well-organized supply chain management. Take some time to visit Lowry Solutions, an RFID company, or other reputable firms to obtain more insights.
Below are some of the tools that will help you boost inventory control. Read through and learn more.
- Reorder Alerts
Reorder alerts are messages that appear on the inventory management system. They notify the users when it’s time to make another order of a certain item. The notification appears when the product reaches a certain predetermined level, which is achieved by looking at the previous sales and expected demands. Using reorder alerts helps to reduce the time spent in manually checking inventory levels and increase accuracy, thanks to automation.
- ABC Analysis
An ABC analysis involves an arrangement of items in the level of importance, from the most to the least important. Class A items are the highest priority ones that sell best and, therefore, require reordering and quality review on a regular basis. Class B items, on the other hand, are average priority products whose quality is medium, and they follow a consistent reordering plan. Class C items are low priority and are considered to have sales that are not so good. Thus, they are not reordered as often.
Together with making it easy to place orders, an ABC analysis helps to save space in warehouses. It does this by determining products that are in demand. This way, a business can utilize the available warehouse space for storing products and retain reduced lower levels for Class B or C items.
Another benefit of an ABC analysis is better inventory forecasting. By checking and gathering information about products that are in demand, managers can determine inventory levels and prices, which help the company generate more profits.
- Reports
These are standard tools that can be generated by using the report function on the inventory management system to obtain data on purchases, sales and inventory. You can customize the standard reports in order to get specific information required.
The advantage of using reports is that they give an analysis of product performance. With this kind of analysis, you are able to follow up on the trends and come up with an improvement plan to boost the growth of your business.
- Serial Numbers And Barcodes
Proper tracking of products from when they are received, stored, shipped, and sold is achieved well by using serial numbers. As a result, financial accountability is made easier, leading to increased efficiency.
Barcodes are unique numbers or patterns that are printed on commodities and then scanned into the inventory management system to help with tracking movement. You are certain of getting reliable and accurate information on product stock by taking advantage of barcodes.
- Inventory Management Software
Using an inventory management software is beneficial because of its ability to merge with other management systems of business, such as accounting, webstore platforms, and phone integration. Inventory control is achieved better through the use of a management software because you are able to obtain accurate data.
You can also use mobile applications to share updates across various locations. This reduces the expenses on labor because the tasks are automated, and it improves productivity because a lot more can be done at the same time. Hence, efficiency is increased in the long run.
- Inventory Tracking
This is a system that allows you to follow up on the availability of stock in order to determine the next time of restocking. It’s both time- and cost-efficient in that you are able to access information about various products from different warehouses at the same time. Moreover, inventory tracking helps to keep away theft because you are able to monitor the movement of products from one point to another.
- Dashboards
Dashboards enable the display of information graphically from an inventory management software. They are used in different ways, depending on the information that is required. Companies, for instance, can use dashboards to display the levels of inventory from each location, the plan for receiving and distributing products, as well as the sales across months. Lastly, dashboards enable combination of different data, which is accurate and can be accessed anytime.
Conclusion
Inventory control is an important part of inventory management that translates to increased efficiency and customer satisfaction, no matter the size of the business. The tools discussed above are considered among the best in controlling inventory. With these tools, you won’t have to carry out some of the tasks manually. So, pick the inventory tools that suit your business. In one way or another, utilizing the tools will influence decision making towards business growth.
