By this process we can effectively oversee the constant flow of the units into and out of a currently existing inventory.
It tends to control the transfer of units in order to check the inventory from becoming lofty or dipping to such lower level that could jeopardize the working of the company.
However, in order to balance the various tasks of inventory management you need to pay attention to the key aspects of an inventory. The first aspect deals with time.
Next, you also need to calculate the buffer stock- supplementary units above the minimum number required for the maintenance of production levels.
Finally, it also incorporates the aspect of keeping accuracy in the records of finished goods that are ready for shipment.
Components of an Inventory Management System
Barcode Scanner
It is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes.
Mobile Computer
Mobile computing is taking a computer and all the necessary files and software out into the field.
Inventory Software
It is used for controlling and tracking warehouse or point of sale inventory.
Barcode Printer
It is a computer peripheral used for printing the barcode labels or tags that can be attached to physical objects.
Barcode label
It is a material with an adhesive backing that has a printed barcode on the face.
Features
The software designed for order management is made up of several components.
All of the components function together, to provide a cohesive inventory for the systems of the organisation. These features include:
Order Management
Once the inventory reaches a certain threshold, a company’s inventory management system can be programmed to tell the managers to reorder that product.
This is basically done in order to prevent the companies from running out of products or tying wasteful capital in inventory.
Asset Tracking
When a product is in the warehouse, it can be tracked via it’s barcode or using some other tracking criteria such as serial number, revision number or lot number.
Service Management
Inventory management software can be used to track the cost of the materials used to provide the services, in case of service-oriented industries.
Example- Cleaning Supplies. By this a particular price is attached to the service provides, which reflects the cost of executing them.
Product Identification
Barcodes serve as the means whereby the data on the products and various orders are inputted in the Inventory Management Software, via the use of barcode readers.
Purpose
Other purposes include maintenance of balance between too much or too little inventory, receiving items into a warehouse or some other location, keeping track of the sale of the product and the inventory levels, tracking of inventory during its transportation stage, to cut down on product spoilage and picking, packing or shipping of items from the warehouse itself.
On the other hand, the manufacturers use inventory management software for the purpose of creating work orders and the bills of the materials in order to facilitate the manufacturing process.
Types of Inventory Management Systems
The types include the following:
- Manual: This type is particularly used in the cases of small businesses, especially if the business has very few products. The simplest way to perform inventory management manually is via the use of spreadsheets. The manual system allows the small business holders to manage their inventory in an economical manner with very little investment. However, a single wrong entry or formula error can lead to inaccuracies in the output.
- Barcode: The use of barcode increases the accuracy and efficiency of management. Today, what we observe is that all the major retailers use the barcode technology. The barcodes are also used to manage the levels and facilitate the movement of inventory in a warehouse.
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Companies that use RFID move thousands of pieces of inventory through their doors. RFID incorporates the use of two types of technology to manage these massive movements- passive (Uses the handheld readers to check the inventory movements) and active (Uses fixed tag readers assigned throughout a warehouse) technology.
Pros and Cons of using Inventory Management Software in a business setting
The advantages include: economization of the costs incurred by the business, increase in efficiency, a systematic organization of the warehouse, update data with the element of data security, insight into the current trends of where the product is stored, its time duration and which suppliers it came from.
The main disadvantage of inventory management software lies in its cost and complexity. The expense incurred can be a major drawback because small businesses find it difficult to afford it. Moreover, it is not easy and simple to learn.
Top five freeware Inventory Management Software
- POS Maid: Helpful in merchandise retail sale. The advantage is that building inventory database is very easy with Pos Maid and it automatically generates stock reports. However, it does not work well with big business owners.
- Inflow Inventory Free Edition: This programmer keeps full track of the inventory. The features include- product and customer management, creation of business documents, assembling finished products and updating the inventory. It is quite simple but does not go well with big businesses.
- ABC Inventory Software: Used by small and middle level business groups. Its features include- complete inventory track along with barcode, purchase order management, sale and shipping order management, unlimited database record, mailing labels and so on. It’s highly reliable, but involves a complex procedure.
- BS1 Enterprise Accounting Free Edition: It is useful for small businesses and is highly simple with a very easy-to-use design. It has different departments- accounting, distribution and manufacturing. The program is intuitive, but is not meant for big businesses and the interface is not very sleek.
- Chronos eStock Card Inventory Software: It keeps track of the sales and supports the barcode system. Features include- customizable interface, e-mail alerts, stock transfer, report generation and so on. It has a good online support, but is a bit slow in screen-to-screen movement.
What is Inventory Management?
The stock reflects the stock of a company or business that are in escrow or reserve, available for sale.
Those who start a business expect their business to be prosperous and successful. Of course, with increasing the volume of goods or products, growing complexity of managing inventory.
Manage your stock in a simple and uncomplicated way with our Stock Management Software
Using a management program to prevent the administration of stock merchandise missing for not having noticed the recent sale of stock or disappearances have been stolen by unknown hands.
It also prevents idle keep merchandise in the warehouse or excessive amount of a product by repeated unnecessary purchases.
Our stock management software keeps you from these concerns.
It also lets you do a full stock control, identifying all possible variants of the same product, the entire existence of each, alerts insufficient existence possibility of automatic orders to suppliers and record the movement of goods in great detail.
