How to Improve Inventory Management in Your Operation

Inventory management capabilities have become a sore issue for many supply chain and manufacturing businesses. With the use of homegrown or legacy inventory management software or paper-based processes many critical inventory management functionality pieces are missing. In a report published by the Aberdeen Group entitled “What Has Changed in Wholesale Distribution: 2015 and Beyond” supply chain businesses reported that updated inventory management practices can provide up to 95.4% outbound order accuracy and on-time delivery along with other significant benefits. The implementation of integrated data networks helped these supply chain and distribution businesses to improve data availability and increased supplier collaboration. Some of the top supply chain management functions that are necessary to improve inventory management in your supply chain facility include: The utilization of real time analytics for the purpose of developing an all-encompassing inventory control plan. Integrating your supply chain management software can provide a constant stream of data throughout your organization detailing what inventory is currently in your facility, future billing for those items, carrying costs of existing inventory and much more. Having access to this data in real time allows your team to benchmark internal KPIs against industry standards to improve overall inventory management effectiveness. Incoming inventory monitoring. Do not take your suppliers word for the actual quantity delivered. Do not cut corners to save labor hours – use your inventory management software in unison with data collection tools such as RFID tags, barcode scanners, mobile computers and voice-directed technology to check incoming inventory for inaccuracies. Multiple methods of communication are available. Utilize the aforementioned tools such as WMS and automated data collection to increase data availability within your facility and implement ASN and EDI usage to communicate with your suppliers and customers effectively as well. Audit trail data archiving. As activity occurs throughout your facility, each movement should be recorded within your inventory management solution. Having this data to access at a later date, if needed, can assist in product recall, investigating theft, quality assurance and more. Re-evaluate your operations regularly. Complacency is a killer and can prevent your warehouse, distribution center or manufacturing facility from pursuing other improvement initiatives that may be available for your business. To learn more about how to improve inventory management with supply chain technology contact Datex experts today at www.datexcorp.com or 800.933.2839.