Unfortunately, many small companies manage inventory manually. The problems and risks brought by such a method are multiple but can be reduced or completely eliminated with simple digital inventory management solutions.

Real-time visibility

With real-time visibility on inventory, planning for work becomes much easier. Knowing if a component is available or needs to be ordered can make a significant difference in how service is delivered and ultimately perceived by a customer. Planning for what to order when is an incredible competitive advantage. And while being the most important perk, it is not the only one.

Real-time visibility also allows to better calculate asset turnover, providing valuable data to company finances. Knowing the value of current inventory allows a business to better understand how much asset value is underutilized. It can then plan for a restructuring of inventory, unlocking capital for other more valuable projects.

Material flow

While an inventory management solution is not necessary to know outflow of materials, it is necessary to know the inflow. It is also necessary to know whether certain components have been in inventory for a long time. It also allows the business to analyze which components are occasional purchases and which are recurring. Recurring orders can the be pre-ordered with specific delivery dates, bringing a level of automation to the business. And as if this wasn’t enough, shortages to customers are minimized, bringing better overall customer experience.

top of that, it makes warehousing significantly easier. With known storage locations, warehouse managers no longer need to know their inventory by heart. With a simple online check, storage location is identified and material is found within a few minutes, making the entire process much more efficient.

Automation

Additionally, anyone with access to a computer can order materials. No longer will there be a need to have someone provide part names, then another someone trying to figure out which part number to order, finally leading to mistakes and part returns. With an inventory management solution, recurring orders can be delegated or automated, which in turn makes everything more efficient and effective.

Mandatory for growth

As your business grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to track inventory within your warehouse. It also becomes next to impossible to track it within several warehouses or storage locations. With a digital inventory management solution, growing your business simply means scaling inventory management.

Takeaway

Digital inventory management solutions exist out of the box. Choosing the right one may be challenging but once it is done and implemented, the benefits are major. And while there are costs to the implementation, the investment is well worth it. Once a solution was selected, it necessarily comes with the need to implement. And with anything new in an existing company, careful change management is needed. However, even with a great inventory management solution, one of the most important cogs of operations is communication. This aspect is best represented when comes the time for customer service.