Stressing about stock? Scared about shrinkage? Don’t know how much stock you have to hand? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, your business might need a better inventory management system! See if you can relate to any of these frequently touted issues:
#1 – Running out of stock frequently
How are your stock levels? Are they consistently high? Or do you find yourself frequently running out of stock? Is there a logical reason for a specific item to be out of stock? Obviously if you’re continuously running out of stock on certain items, your sales and marketing are working and your customers know to come to you to purchase certain items. But continuously running out of stock across your warehouse is going to be an issue, because you’re going to start missing opportunities to sell to your customers.
The right solution can show you, your sales team and your warehouse staff what stock you have on hand, how much of it you have and where your stock is at any given time. This will be especially important if you have more than one warehouse and are concerned with logistics.
#2 – Discrepancies between stock you’ve purchased and sold
When you conduct your end of year stock check, you want to make sure the numbers between what you’ve purchased and sold add up. Obviously, you can account for a certain amount of shrinkage in stock (breakages, spoiled stock etc.) but if you’re constantly adjusting your anticipated stock to match up what you’ve sold – something certainly is wrong with the way you track your stock!
In reality, a comprehensive inventory management system will help you to figure out where any discrepancy may come from. It’d help you to identify threats to shrinkage including theft, damaged stock therefore helping you to save cash.
#3 – You don’t know how much stock you have
No clue about what stock your business is carrying? That’s a sure sign of needing an inventory management system! With a decent system, you’ll be able to generate reports at a click of a button to help you understand exactly stock you’re carrying. Things like this go a long way to making informed decisions about overall strategic goals for your business and the wider supply chain.
#4 – You do too much manual counting
Every now and again, a manual count is a useful exercise to undertake. You can check the accuracy of your inventory and audit for potential discrepancies. But this shouldn’t be a frequent undertaking. If you’re solely relying on manual counts to gain an understanding of what stock you do and don’t have, it can become a very tiresome and time consuming task. Not to mention, you and your team are only human – mistakes are bound to happen!
With an automated system, you can track your stock far easier and track figures kept by an inventory management system.
#5 – You overstock because you can’t forecast
Are you losing precious cash by overstocking your warehouse? As obvious as it sounds, a balanced approach to acquiring stock is required for a successful business and to ensure you aren’t overspending on filling your warehouse.
Having surplus stock can mean that you might end up selling that stock at a cut price, just to clear your warehouse in preparation for new stock that you know will sell better. An inventory management system will empower your business with the tools it needs to forecast the right levels of stock, utilising comprehensive sales forecasting. It’ll pay your business dividends in the future.
Can you relate to anything we’ve mentioned in this blog? Tell us about your frustrations in the comments section below! And if you’re ready to change the way you manage inventory, get in touch with our Dynamics NAV team or read this study to find out how helped our client Kiddylicious with their Inventory woes.
