Inventory is a big asset for a business. And managing this asset effectively plays a big part in maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and profitability.
Inventory management aims to ensure that businesses are consistently able to supply enough goods to meet the demand of their customers. Organizations need accurate data to be able to make the right decisions in this area. However, effective inventory management also means striking the right balance between enough and too much. Overstocking increases storage costs and if those goods don’t sell can lead to stock being written off.
An automated inventory management system tracks a business’ stock levels across sales channels and storage facilities from receipt to fulfilment. This insight provides businesses with the knowledge of which products need restocking and allows them to make better informed decisions about the performance of each of their sales channels. In addition to keeping track of stock levels, an automated inventory system can perform actions such as sending updates to other systems across the business to ensure data is consistent and automatically reordering products when stock is low.
Real-time visibility
The ability to view and track your inventory levels in real-time gives you greater visibility of exactly what is available and where it is currently located. This level of accuracy enables you to provide customers with real-time updates on the status of their order and avoid unfulfilled orders as you’ll know exactly what to reorder when increasing levels of customer satisfaction.
Increased efficiency
Traditional inventory management involves manually updating spreadsheets for each sales channel which is a time-consuming task. An automated system updates stock counts every time an item is received from a supplier or sold to or returned by a customer without any human intervention required. This makes the process a lot faster and frees your staff to focus on other tasks.
Fewer errors
Calculating inventory levels manually is prone to mistakes – mistakes that can cost your business. An automated inventory system provides a more accurate count and updates data as soon as stock is received from a supplier and shipped to a customer guaranteeing you’re always working with the right number.
Reduced costs
Having the right level of inventory to meet demand prevents excess holding costs such as those associated with warehouse storage and handling.
Protects revenue
Having an accurate view of how much inventory you have available prevents lost sales due to out-of-stock items. Being able to track inventory as it moves from warehouse to distributor and distributor to customer will also ensure that you don’t lose stock.
Aids forecasting
Avoid stockouts by using data held within your automated inventory system to predict how much stock is needed to meet the demand of each sales channel at certain time periods in the future. This insight also helps avoid overstocking which is particularly important when selling perishable or seasonal goods. If demand isn’t in line with supply, these often have to be sold at a discount which will seriously impact your bottom line.
Supports scaling
As your business grows, you’ll need to adapt your operations to keep up. Managing more sales and larger quantities of inventory requires the accuracy and efficiency that an automated inventory management system can provide.
The challenge that manufacturing and retail companies face is that whichever systems they use to manage inventory today, there are often gaps between systems and processes that lead to incorrect data, or worse, a total lack of visibility. It’s often manual processes and missed steps that lead to this. By automating processes and creating modern low-code apps, you can close these gaps. This enables you to reduce repetitive tasks, streamlining workforce productivity and integrating data between systems. All this contributes to more efficient operations, happier customers and a healthier balance sheet.
