The health of your inventory and your warehouse can directly affect the health of your consumer. This may be true in the literal sense, as many pharmaceutical companies now provide mail-order service or it may still ring true figuratively, as the end user may lose confidence in the reliability of your business to provide services in a timely manner. The American consumer, in particular, is especially deadline-driven. Though a product may not be needed on a particular date, a missed date of arrival can have lasting, negative effects upon the client’s trust in your service.
Keep It Moving
As anyone with experience in logistics or inventory management knows, the majority of information viewed and used by a warehouse professional will have its source from a separate department or location. The presence of a good warehouse management system will help that information remain consistent for every department, not only the warehouse. The customer service representative, for example, should see (through the software) the same number of cases of product in the warehouse bin location as would the warehouse worker if he/she would count it manually. The accuracy of a system that employs good warehouse inventory management allows each individual – no matter their position or department – to view the same consistent and reliable information. Once your inventory management system is able to provide this key component then the receiving and shipping of your inventory should be performed at a much higher and more efficient rate.
Cut Away the Excess
Inventory management is not only about the organization, shipping, and receiving of materials; it should also be concerned with the proper use of space. Any system that truly makes use of the key principles that guide warehouse inventory management, should also consider your physical space and the physical location of your bins and racks. Inventory management should also involve the most efficient use of your space. Rather than simply “eyeballing” your space and hypothesizing, use an inventory management system to provide you with a better analysis of your space to determine the maximum use and efficiency of the space in your warehouse. It may be common, as a business grows and evolves, to consistently rearrange or even move your warehouse. This may seem like an intimidating and daunting task but the use of a reliable inventory management system can help to ease the transition.
Thinking of ways to improve your inventory management? Contact the experienced staff at Quality Software Systems, Inc. to answer all of your questions.
