How to Achieve Optimum Inventory Levels
It’s no secret that companies that own inventory struggle to balance competing interests. On the one hand, the finance folks want to minimize the cash tied up in inventory, while the sales team never wants to run out, which can delay or lose a sale! In fact, recent studies have indicated that 42% of inventory-based firms consider excess inventory to be their biggest concern, while 37% list stock-outs as the biggest problem. Additionally, a third concern is the amount of time it takes for inventory planners to manage these issues.
Of course, proper inventory management is crucial to the efficient and profitable operation of distribution, manufacturing and retail companies. It is why many firms have already invested in tools like bar coding, warehouse management, multi-bin solutions, shipping automation, EDI, and others.
While these applications can help you count, move, receive and ship inventory, and you know what you have where, they don’t assure that you have the right stuff! For that you need an inventory replenishment solution that helps you understand true lead times, accurately forecast your demand, and place optimal orders from suppliers at the right time.
We find many companies using cumbersome reports, data dumps to Excel or even just their gut feeling to try to figure out what to order when. It is time consuming and error-prone, and is often reactive rather than proactive.
If that sounds familiar, then Sage Inventory Advisor is worthy of investigation. Sage Inventory Advisor is an affordable, cloud-based tool that integrates with Sage ERP and addresses the challenges identified above. It provides an easy to use interface that utilizes a dashboard to highlight and focus attention on the most critical problems in your inventory now. Just as important, it alerts you to the potential for additional stocking issues. It also helps the inventory buyer(s) produce the best possible purchase orders in a fraction of the time of more manual methods.
To find out more on how you can address your inventory struggles and learn more about how to achieve optimum inventory levels, contact CareTeam1@DSDinc.com.
Written by Adrian Lopez, Account Executive at DSD Business Systems
