Your Essential Guide To Effective Inventory Management + 18 Techniques You Need To Know
Your Essential Guide To Effective Inventory Management + 18 Techniques You Need To Know
Your Essential Guide To Effective Inventory Management + 18 Techniques You Need To Know
When you don’t know how much inventory you have on hand,
you can’t make smart reorder decisions
You can’t list items accurately online because you don’t have
visibility into how much inventory you have to allocate to each
channel. You get stuck with too much inventory or an incorrect
amount of product. The list is endless.
Let’s take a look at a few stats from actual retailers who have
experienced the hurdles of not using an inventory management
software.
All of these mistakes will not only cost you money, but also
cost you in wasted labor spent correcting the mistakes later.
When you don’t implement management tools, your risk of
human error mistakes goes up by the minute. And your
customer reviews and loyalty take a negative hit as well.
It’s well worth the extra time and money to have inventory
management set up by the experts who made the software.
Work with them to make sure you’re utilizing the proper
techniques and features to get the most bang for your buck.
3. ABC analysis.
9. Batch tracking.
12. Dropshipping.
Lean Six Sigma enhances the tools of Six Sigma, but instead
focuses more on increasing word standardization and the flow
of business.
17. Cross-docking.
1. MB Klein
Yes! Click here to browse popular inventory management solutions we currently integrate with.
Don’t see a platform or have a custom solution? Get in touch to discuss your options.
The main goal of inventory management is to increase the visibility and organization of
inventory activity via automated and streamlined pick/pack/ship features.
This kind of change empowers your small business to grow with confidence and puts you in
front of the kind of customers you want.
Your business should run like a well-oiled machine upon implementing smart inventory
management techniques. And if you really want to do it right, implement inventory management
software with the software’s in-house support team. Let the experts lead you in the right
direction.
The proof is in the numbers when measuring the success rate of inventory management. After
you have implemented new inventory management techniques, compare the data from before
and after.
Have your level of mis-shipments, mis-picks, or out of stocks decreased? What about dead
stock? Have you eliminated the dead piles of inventory around the perimeter of the warehouse?
If you can answer yes to these, you’ve successfully conducted inventory management. As a
result, you can expect to see better customer reviews, improved customer loyalty, and even a
boost in Amazon Seller Rating Performance.
It’s an all hands on deck approach when it comes to inventory management effectiveness.
Several teams are responsible for different pieces of the pie.
The purchasing team is accountable for making sure they are not over or under purchasing, and
are closely monitoring each purchase order.
The merchandising team is tasked to ensure the inventory is properly listed, promoted, and
priced to move.
The warehouse team, warehouse manager, and inventory specialists are responsible for handling
all inventory from FIFO to delegating proper stock levels in each location. This ensures less shelf
wear on packaging.
The warehouse team is also accountable for the obvious inventory management tasks –
managing proper receiving, correct picks, and correct shipments to create an ease of movement
throughout the pick/pack/ship process.
There’s a few alarming signs around a warehouse that signal your inventory manager cannot do
their job properly. And they all have to do with improper inventory management.
You have undersold inventory; meaning, there’s a hot item somewhere hidden in the backstock
you didn’t list in time for the season.
Inventory levels are creeping up, but aren’t in line with sales levels. This is a sign of dead stock.
The amount of shelf wear on packages forces you to mark down the price. This is a result of
stocking inventory incorrectly or sitting too long and becoming dead stock.
The inventory manager is still using a manual spreadsheet. This method of inventory
management leads to huge amounts of manual error like mis-shipments and mis-picks.
It can’t be stressed enough how important reports are to inventory management processes during
peak season.
Historical sales reports from peak seasons past, and throughout the current year, should be used
to determine order frequency during peak season. Look back on what you sold the most and the
least in tandem with what items are popular this year to make more accurate purchasing
decisions.
Sales reports can be broken down by sales channels so you get a better understanding of what
items sold on each channel. This gives you a clear idea of the kind of order demand to expect and
right order frequency to establish.
Peak season for a business is arguably the most important time of the year. It’s the time of year
when most businesses make the bulk of their revenue, so it’s pivotal that you have proper
inventory management in place in order to succeed.
If you’re heading into your first peak season, here’s what you can do to prepare.
Conduct a cycle count to make sure all inventory levels are correct.
Ensure shipping supplies are properly stocked and ready to use. By the way, shipping supplies
should be inventoried as well.
Hire temporary staff to account for a higher demand in orders.
Utilize history reports to make sure you’ve ordered the right amount of inventory.
Make sure all inventory, including backstock and picking, is in the proper locations.
And last, but not least, implement inventory management software. Inventory management
streamlines all the points above and better accommodates for high demand and fluctuation
throughout peak season better than a spreadsheet ever could.
Executive Summary