11 Oct
What is Inventory?
Stock inventory is the collection of all resources and items stored, whether it is for use in the manufacturing process or for sale to customers. Any business owner should prioritise stock control. Inventory management systems will help your business to increase warehouse efficiency, provide greater customer service, and have a clearer visibility of stock value and profit margins.
Why is Inventory Management Important?
Maintaining warehouse inventory accuracy for your business is extremely important. Your organisation could lose a lot of money due to warehouse inventory mismanagement difficulties, whether it’s selecting errors or incorrect shipments.
Fulfilment errors can result in higher returns volume which is usually the result of fulfilment failure. High returns can have a negative influence on the company’s earnings and can add to logistical challenges. Fulfilment errors can also have a negative impact on your business’s reputation and customer loyalty.
Companies can have insufficient warehouse inventories for a variety of reasons:
- Ineffective Processes
- Broken or damaged goods
- Picking Errors
- Orders arriving to the wrong address
Implementing a good warehouse inventory management system will provide your business with greater warehouse efficiencies, improved customer satisfaction, and increase your profit margins. The objective of good inventory management is to shorter lead times, rapid order fulfilment, good product flow, decrease expenses and maximum capacity are all goals within a strong warehouse inventory management plan.
Inventory Management Approaches:
Below, we have outlined some inventory management approaches that can help your business improve its warehouse operations. Here at Meteor Space, we can adapt any of these approaches and tailor them to accommodate your unique business needs.
Implement Just in Time (JIT) Inventory Management:
Just in Time inventory management is a way of receiving items from suppliers only a few days before it is required for distribution. This method helps businesses to lower inventory expenses while increasing inventory turnover. The main purpose is to ensure stock does not sit on the shelves for a long period of time.
Just in Time delivery requires careful planning of the entire supply chain and the use of superior WMS software such as Canary 7 to complete the entire process from start to finish, increasing efficiency and removing the possibility of error because each operation is closely monitored.
At Meteor Space, we provide Just in Time warehousing services which can enable your business to reach a higher level of efficiency and manage your supply chain better. We can store finished and semi-finished goods in our warehouse while delivering the goods to various warehouses when need to fit in with your produce schedule.
Picking and Packaging
Fast and accurate picking and packing services is required to increase customer satisfaction and provide a positive reputation for your business.
Manual processes are prone to errors and often increase warehousing expenses. Order picking errors increases fulfilment expenses and can provide a negative reputation for your company. Order picking errors can be greatly reduced by using barcodes as it can reduce the possibility of the team picking up the wrong goods or picking similar products. Using barcodes to label each product simplifies selecting and packaging, resulting in increased inventory accuracy ensure the customer receives the correct order.
It can be a difficult procedure to guarantee that your products are adequately sorted and packed. Therefore, outsourcing with a fulfilment company that specialises in picking and packing would free your business time and energy. At Meteor, we offer a range of picking and packing solutions in Ireland and across Europe to suit your business needs.
Implement Warehouse Management System:
Implementing warehouse management systems (WMS) such as Canary 7 will provide your business with an insight on how to manage seasonal spikes with increased efficiency. Understanding how these seasonal factors affect your production levels, as well as your customers’ purchase habits, will enable you to benefit on demand peaks and prepare for demand. Using demand forecasting to highlight historical sales and demand patterns to help prepare for seasonal demand which will greatly minimise warehouse storage expenses.
Demand forecasting is essential for ensuring that your business never runs out of stock. Accurate inventory forecasting allows your business to meet customer requirements and fulfil client requests efficiently without having to invest in significant volumes of unwanted stock, lowering the overall operational costs.
Meteor Space use an Inhouse WMS which helps to achieve warehousing excellence. Our inhouse management system (Canary 7) optimises warehouse operations by maximising worker utilisation, inventory, and order management, picking and put away, shipping, and returns. Canary 7 can provide your business with greater insights into your warehouse operations allowing your business to build smarter processes to manage your inventory.
Conclusion:
Inventory is considered the most valuable assets for businesses therefore, without implementing inventory management tactics can have a negative impact on your business. It’s critical to understand how you can improve it to stay up with demand and increase warehouse management performance.
At Meteor Space, we provide order fulfilment solutions to ecommerce businesses who may not have the warehouse facilities to improve inventory accuracy.
Our objective is to increase customer satisfaction by improving inventory accuracy, order accuracy, and shipment timeframes. Many businesses are now considering warehouse and fulfilment options as they prepare for the busy season ahead.
Contact us today to find out more on how Meteor Space can help your business.
