If your business centres on stock, whether it is the moving, selling, buying or storing of stock, then knowing where that stock is, always, is crucial. There are numerous consequences to poor inventory management, all of which have a detrimental effect on your business, and all of which can be avoided with good stock control software and a little organisation.
Investing in superior quality stock control software is the key to avoiding the consequences of poor inventory management. But, if you are still at the stage where you are unsure that you need to make such an investment, then consider the increased costs of not knowing where you stock is at any given time. This could result in you buying more than you need, just because you cannot find something. Or you could spend more buying items at the last minute because you didn’t realise your stock was low. If you deal with perishable items, you also need to consider the cost of out of date stock that wasn’t sold, or moved on in time because it couldn’t be found. Not knowing where your stock is, because you are not using inventory management software makes it impossible to track as well. Stock doesn’t stay still, and if you don’t know what you have to begin with, it is hard to know whether it has moved to the right place, at the right time. Theft, and unnecessary stock movement are just two of the consequences of not being able to track stock effectively. Closely linked to this is the inability to balance your stock effectively. Under and over stocking are inevitable outcomes of not investing in warehouse management software.
The consequences of poor inventory management and not investing in the best stock inventory software are not just about money, they are also about time and decision making. How much time do your employees waste trying to find items that are lost or misplaced? What else could they be doing in this time? What is the knock-on effect of this lost time on your business, and the supply chain that you are a part of? These are all important questions and the answers to them determine how your business is seen, and how likely you are to be chosen to fulfil orders, or to play a role in another company’s supply chain. Another consequence of not investing in the best software for inventory management is ineffective decision making. How can you plan for the future of your company when you don’t know the current state of your business? Positive planning involves understanding trends, and understanding the movement of your stock is a vital part of this process. If you don’t know what you have, where it goes and how fast it moves, how can you plan ahead for what you need to buy in or create space for?
The ultimate consequence of all of this is of course, poor customer service. Regardless of whether you are dealing with end users, or are at a different position in the supply chain, you are a vital part of the overall customer experience and delays at our point because of lost, misplaced or lack of stock reverberate through the entire chain. Suddenly investing in stock control software seems a much more important investment to make for the health and wellbeing of your business.
