Many small and medium-sized businesses conduct their annual inventory count at the end of June. It’s all hands on deck to physically count all the items in the warehouse and verify them against the quantities listed in your ERP system on the inventory lists. Some organizations are even forced to close for a few days to complete this Herculean task, because it’s simply not possible to combine it with their day-to-day operations. Want to stay operational while conducting an inventory count? This is perfectly possible by making efficient use of an up-to-date ERP system. Here are a few tips:
Optimize Your Annual Inventory Count
- Modern ERP software makes it easy for you to print your inventory lists by product category, bin location, aisle, and shelf location—or a combination of any of these!
- Using a handheld scanner, you can simply scan the barcodes and enter the count. These scanners are fully integrated with your ERP system, so manual data entry (which can lead to errors) is a thing of the past!
- With the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics, it’s perfectly possible to walk around your warehouse with a tablet or smartphone. This allows you to enter the correct quantity right away. If you want to change certain details on the item card all at once, that’s perfectly possible too—after all, you’re working directly in your ERP system!
- When you work with integrated inventory management and implement it consistently, you’ll always have a clear overview of your inventory in your ERP system (such as Dynamics NAV). Ultimately, all you need to do is compare the reported inventory in your ERP system with the actual inventory and, if necessary, simply make minor adjustments.
Or try cycle counting and spread out the workload!
Conducting a complete inventory count of your warehouse from A to Z every year can be a time-consuming task. The cycle counting method involves spreading this workload out over several periods. For example, a specific portion of the inventory is counted at a specific location at a predetermined time. This allows you to check a specific portion of your warehouse several times a year—for example, monthly—rather than going through the entire warehouse in one go. This can offer several advantages:
- First of all, this helps you avoid the heavy annual workload your organization faces during the annual inventory count! Spreading out your inventory counts saves you both energy and time!
- It’s less complicated to count only part of a warehouse. Since you’re only counting part of it, your other business operations can continue as usual, and your sales, for example, won’t come to a complete standstill!
- By taking an in-depth look at a specific product category at a time, you can suddenly start to question your inventory management for that category and compare it with your sales figures. This will also help you spot potential missed sales opportunities more quickly!
- For example, you can also choose to check a portion of your items—say, twice per fiscal year—to obtain a much more accurate inventory overview. This could be particularly useful for your most important product category, for instance, to help you maximize sales and optimize inventory management!
Alistar has the right expertise in warehouse management and can use technology to help your organization make significant progress in this area! Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the ideal, perfect technological foundation for making this process run more efficiently within your organization! Both approaches are fully supported by our solution; in addition, ERP Systems for Building Materials Retailers and Technical Wholesalers and Drinkmaster 365 This fits in perfectly!
