In most case, the solid inventory management does not call for radio frequency identification or other unmanned midair tags. In fact, there are various technologies and best practices, which when utilized on the stand-alone basis or linked to other secondary systems can improve the inventory management significantly mainly for today’s DCs units and warehouses. As such, here are some of the ways you can use to improve your inventory management.
Before you invest, explore your current systems
The inventory management does not necessarily have to be complicated. In some instance, this system is as simple as having a single inventory management system that links barcoding for active and real-time visibility of the inventory. This implies that you can improve your inventory management without investing many resources. In fact, most of the enterprise resource planning (ERPs) and other legacy software packages such as eturns contain reliable levels of inventory management.
Establish the bin-level inventory controls
Although this sounds simple in theory, it is one of the aspects that are occasionally overlooked by many shippers. This implies that you should be focused on figuring out what is contained in every bin in your warehouse all the time. To this end, the warehouse management system is the seamless tool for that task. When using the warehouse management system, for your bin-level control, all items out of bin can be tracked down efficiently and in real-time. After you have achieved this, you can then move to cycle counting rather than conducting the entire inventories, as the latter option can be a huge event, which can hog resources and slay productivity.
Fold the inventory optimization and demand management into the mix
For your clients to be happy and gratified, you need to provide that your inventories be in the right place all the time. When you fail to achieve this, you might end up losing resources or event affecting your customer relations in a negative scope. For shippers to attain this balance, it is vital that they use the demand management system, inventory optimization solutions, and inventory management tools. These three packages together they form a strong wallop that can help a shipper to address all issues related to inventory management. Bespoken, if you can manage to have all your demand management in place, your inventories will as well fail in the right place all the time.
Consider the GPS technology for your inventory management lineup
While GPS has often been used for vehicle navigations, they are also finding their ways into the inventory management, mainly in the supply chains. This system can be used to report on the actual as well as the performance of the inventory in the firm. In most cases, attaining reliable visibility in the supply chains can be overwhelming, but it is vital for successful business. With the use of the GPS, you can keep track of all inventories all along in the supply chain efficiently. This offers you ample time to address other issues in your business. Similarly, it can facilitate productivity since all operations are aligned for active monitoring at any time anywhere.