Inventory management is a critical part of any business, yet far too
many business owners pay little attention to how their inventory is
managed. If your business seems to be running out of stock too often or
if you are having difficulty managing your inventory counts, these tips
can help you get your inventory under control and you could see a
drastic improvement in your bottom line.
Use Inventory Projections
Unsold inventory costs money as products that are not moving can be damaged, take up space in warehouses and could actually become obsolete. By looking over past sales, you may be better able to project what you will need in the future. For example, if you sold 50 of a certain item last month, you may need to restock 50 more of those items. However, if you sold 25 of those 50 at the first week of the month, 15 the second, 10 in the third and none since then, the demand may be dwindling so you may not need to restock as many.
Track Inventory
One of the most important things to do to make sure your inventory is moving as it should is to track how many of each item you actually have on hand. There are many areas of the inventory process where errors can occur, such as entering errors, miscounts upon delivery and even employee theft. Use an electronic inventory control system that uses bar code scanning to eliminate some of those errors. You can also implement what is known as cycle-counting where you choose a few items each day and compare the inventory totals with what is actually on hand. Click to learn more about inventory control systems.
Other tips that can help you get a better handle on your inventory include focusing on the items that sell the best as well as using spreadsheets as back up to inventory systems. Be sure to back up all data to an external source, whether it is a USB drive, cloud software or other location that will keep the data safe in case of an emergency, such as a fire or computer crash.
Use Inventory Projections
Unsold inventory costs money as products that are not moving can be damaged, take up space in warehouses and could actually become obsolete. By looking over past sales, you may be better able to project what you will need in the future. For example, if you sold 50 of a certain item last month, you may need to restock 50 more of those items. However, if you sold 25 of those 50 at the first week of the month, 15 the second, 10 in the third and none since then, the demand may be dwindling so you may not need to restock as many.
Track Inventory
One of the most important things to do to make sure your inventory is moving as it should is to track how many of each item you actually have on hand. There are many areas of the inventory process where errors can occur, such as entering errors, miscounts upon delivery and even employee theft. Use an electronic inventory control system that uses bar code scanning to eliminate some of those errors. You can also implement what is known as cycle-counting where you choose a few items each day and compare the inventory totals with what is actually on hand. Click to learn more about inventory control systems.
Other tips that can help you get a better handle on your inventory include focusing on the items that sell the best as well as using spreadsheets as back up to inventory systems. Be sure to back up all data to an external source, whether it is a USB drive, cloud software or other location that will keep the data safe in case of an emergency, such as a fire or computer crash.
