Optimizing your warehouse can bring a strong competitive advantage for your business. Optimizing warehouse operations can increase stock use efficiency by 30% if they integrated order processing in an inventory system. That being said, many owners focus on measurements like ROI and overhead costs. Yet, properly managing inventory is not as focused. Without efficient systems in place, a company might find itself with problems in the supply web.
Inventory Management Issues
without an automated tracking system in place, inventory levels could be off and cause issues with too little and too much inventory. Missed sales, disruptions, and reputation can all be affected by issues with too little inventory. For example, imagine being a customer that ordered a product than seeing an order delay. The customer could become impatient, which, in turn, can hurt your customers’ reputation and trust within your products.
The above example is just one of many issues that an organization might face without an accurate inventory. Without inventory tracking, a company might not have access to understanding seasonality, sales history, and other fulfillment data. Another major issue with inefficient inventory management is having too much inventory. Buying too much inventory can cause excess space which can increase carrying costs and be a waste in capital.
A business adopting an inventory management system can use it to help prevent missed orders and help improve forecasting and logistics. Regardless of the size of your business, integrating these systems into operations can create a competitive edge. For more information on strategies to help keep a balanced inventory, check out the accompanying infographic below.
Infographic created by WSI, a 3pl warehouse services provider
