Tips For Streamlining Your Inventory Management

If you are a company that sells any sort of product or builds anything that requires multiple parts, you are going to need a decent inventory management system in order to keep track of what you have, what you need to order, what you aren't using, and what you are using at a higher rate than expected. This will allow you to avoid having to waste storage space on items that you are storing for no reason and not using up quickly enough. It will also allow you to keep all of the products that your customers want or that you need to build other items on hand at all times. Here are some tips for streamlining your inventory management process.

1. Keep Track of How Much You've Sold or Used Up Each Month

Make sure that you keep records on the amount of each item that you use or sell each month. During the holiday season, you might be restocking more regularly. If this applies to you, be sure that you break down the amount of items that you sell or use by week, as well as by month. This will allow you to keep the amount of stock that you need to satisfy your customers and your product demands easily. It will also allow you to avoid having more stock on the shelves than you actually need so that you can make sure that you have room to store what you actually require each month.

2. Use Cycle Counting

Every month or every week, update your tracking system so that it accurately reflects what you have in stock or available to use. This means that you take a section of your inventory and count it. Then, you compare what you have counted that day to the numbers that your tracking system shows. If they are inaccurate, you know that there is a breakdown in your tracking system that needs to be accounted for. This gives you the chance to fix them. Try to count all sections every six months by rotating through counting cycles.

3. Backup Your Inventory Data

Be sure that you keep a version of inventory data in a cloud or backed up on a removable jump drive. This will allow you to rebuild your inventory data and not have to start from scratch should the worst occur and you need to replace all of your data.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in inventory management.    

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