Inventory, how do you manage it?
Stop counting your inventory and start managing it.
The growth of e-commerce has brought unexpected inventory management challenges to many retail operations. These challenges have highlighted the importance of not only having a robust warehouse management system (WMS), but also ensuring that it is seamlessly integrated with other key automation software.
What disturbs the current stock?
Global trade has increased the distance between manufacturers and destinations, and with it the likelihood of delivery problems. As a result, five key market factors are creating significant challenges affecting inventory:
Natural disasters: hurricanes, floods, forest fires, etc.
Clogged ports: labour challenges, ship size and closures
Component shortages: electronic components, vehicles, counterfeit goods and stockpiling in China
Container shortages: rising shipping costs, air freight
Labour shortages: rising wages, high staff turnover and need for training
How to avoid today’s stock failures?
While today’s market presents many new challenges – and reinforces old ones – there are also new tools and strategies that can give your business an edge. Here are five that will enable you to keep inventory problems under control:
Preparation: It is one thing to have inventory. Knowing where that inventory is – and how much you have – is quite another. Getting a handle on how much you have and determining where it is are crucial first steps.
Connectivity: From the moment a warehouse receives a pallet of goods to the moment a product is picked to fulfil an order and finally loaded onto a truck, multiple systems must work together to maximise profits and grow the business. However, many warehouses have built systems that struggle to communicate between functions. This limits upstream and downstream visibility and leads to inefficiencies. Connecting your software systems can make a difference.
Allocation: Knowing where to source stock – and what labour is available – can mean the difference between meeting critical shipping deadlines and dealing with angry customers.
Transport: Manual labelling and inefficient shipping methods are outdated business practices. By moving more volume faster, you can shorten shipping times.
Achievement: Meet or exceed customer expectations by ensuring they don’t have to wait for their items to arrive.
In order to make your logistics as efficient as possible, Codipack offers a lot of mobile solutions
