Inventory management is a necessary process designed to keep supply chains running smoothly. When you have a warehouse full of storage and customer orders to fill, effective inventory management allows you to better organise and streamline daily processes.
When done well, you can reap the benefits, which include cutting down on the cost of resources, improving business processes across the entire supply chain and boosting profits.
With COVID-19 unfortunately putting many businesses in a precarious position, it is more important than ever to find cost-cutting measures and increase business visibility to stay afloat during these difficult times. Here are the top ten benefits of inventory management, and how we can help.
1. Improved Productivity
When you improve inventory management across the business, you will see an increase in your worker productivity levels. Taking stock of inventory by hand can be a monotonous, time-consuming task for employees that can leave them feeling burnt out. But when you take advantage of technology to improve inventory management, such as mobile barcode scanners and asset tracking systems, you speed up the process, freeing up your workers to get on with other tasks elsewhere.
Barcode scanners can keep accurate records with a simple swipe over the stock, eliminating the need for a worker to write it down manually. This employee can now perform inventory management in a fraction of the time, allowing them to be more productive.
2. Reduced Inaccuracies
Apart from being time-consuming, manual inventory management is also very liable to mistakes. It’s very easy for a worker to write down the wrong number, and even the tiniest of inaccuracy in the stocktaking could cause chaos down the line if the wrong number of items are shipped in, meaning you cannot meet customer demands. It could severely damage your business’s reputation.
Inventory and stock management software can automate all the data in processes, leaving no room for error. When you switch to taking down your inventory numbers using technology, you cut down the chance of making mistakes, meaning your stock levels are always accurate in real-time.
3. Data-Driven Planning
When you switch to an inventory management system, you will have access to data that you never had before, that is kept up-to-date, and that can be viewed at the touch of a button. Data is so crucial when making business decisions. When you have accurate, real-time data, you can use all that information to make plans for the future that are backed by the numbers.
4. Increased Customer Satisfaction
The customer is key; when they are happy, your business will thrive. Everything you do should be to improve customer satisfaction, to drive positive word of mouth about your business, which will drive sales.
When your inventory management processes are streamlined and improved, your customers will benefit from this. Great inventory management leads to orders being fulfilled more quickly and shipped out faster, improving customer satisfaction and leading to increased profits for your business.
5. Time Saving
When you implement a management inventory system, you will see a reduction in the time taken to perform mundane tasks.
Inventory management is essential, but it is time-consuming and monotonous, and any ways that can help reduce the time needed to perform this vital task should be reduced where possible. Barcodes and asset tracking can significantly reduce the time required to spend on these tasks, giving you more time to spend improving other business processes and growing your business.
6. Information Transparency
You may think you understand everything going on within your business, but this can be difficult to achieve as your business grows. When inventory management software is implemented, you know exactly when items are received, picked, packed, shipped etc., and you will be able to see exactly when you overordered or underordered – as well as which suppliers are reliable verses which are consistently letting you down.
This transparency of information can function as data to help you make business-savvy decisions that benefit the bottom line.
7. Increased Customer Loyalty
Improving your accuracy and efficiency as a business will increase customer satisfaction, and this can lead to you being able to retain loyal customers. Customers will come back time and time again to businesses that put them first and demonstrate excellent customer service. By improving your inventory management, you will benefit from the knock-on effect of customer retention.
8. Increased Profits
Avoiding deadstock and overstock is crucial to success, especially if your stock can perish. You don’t want to waste cash buying in stock that won’t sell. That’s why an inventory management system can help you prevent revenue loss by providing you with accurate data that you can use to make cost-saving decisions.
You can eliminate stock expenses caused by human error, view your product history, and make sound choices that will benefit your profit margins. With all that data at your disposal, you will never waste funds again.
9. Efficient Operations
You need to ensure your warehouse is operating as efficiently as possible. When not done, this can result in delays, increased cost and unhappy customers.
Inventory management systems can help you eliminate time-consuming processes and reduce the number of errors produced through manual systems. Barcoding systems can help make the entire inventory management system much more straightforward and accurate, allowing you to make the whole system more efficient.
10. Flexibility
A sound inventory management system can give you the ability to be flexible and to adapt to situations as they arise. Everything is very unpredictable at the moment following COVID-19, so it’s crucial to be able to make sudden changes and adjust to sudden problems that arise in an effective way.
With inventory management, your increased visibility allows you to do this well, providing you with the data needed to make savvy business decisions and to analyse a problem as soon as it occurs.
At GSM Barcoding, we can provide you with a wide range of inventory management technology and software such as asset tracking systems and barcode labels. To find out more, contact us today.
