Sometimes, businesses do not pay enough attention to some aspects of their operations. One such example is often inventory control. As such, we’ve put together a guide on the importance of inventory control in warehouse management to explain why this is a mistake.
Problems with inventory control slow down your business
The first reason for the importance of inventory control in warehouse management is that a lack of it slows down your warehouse. A warehouse without proper inventory control struggled with storing its inventory in an organized manner. This does not just increase the difficulty of doing storage but makes it impossible to retrieve items from inventory efficiently. Whenever it’s necessary to find something, you’d need to hunt it down personally. You can’t even expect cross-docking to go well without proper inventory control! The old and incoming inventory would get in the way of each other, and the inefficient storage methods mean there’d be a struggle to unload and reload everything quickly.
Handling inventory is much easier and safer when properly organizing it.
You stand to suffer serious losses with bad inventory control
Another thing to keep in mind when discussing the importance of inventory control in warehouse management is that items easily get damaged when inventory control is lacking. Especially if the stacking of boxes and pallets is not up to par and something tips over. The storage experts from cleancutmoving.com also point out that a lack of attention paid to inventory control typically means that workers are not properly motivated or trained. As a result, human error is far more common. And since any damage to the inventory means that it needs to be replaced, sometimes in a hurry, you stand to suffer serious financial losses from it.
Inventory control offers you valuable insight
An important advantage of proper inventory control is that it offers insight into demand. And it even lets you forecast interest accurately. After all, in order to achieve inventory control, everything needs to be cataloged and kept track of accurately. As a result, it’s easy to notice when interest in any particular item rises or wanes. If you keep a careful eye on it, it’s easy to notice patterns and figure out what you should stock up on and what you should order less of. This will more than help to balance cost and quality in warehousing. After all, correct forecasting opens up a ton of opportunities for higher profits. Even if you spend a decent sum of money to sort out your inventory control, you can justify it as an investment into your future profits.
Inventory control lets you track your inventory accurately
We mentioned it already, but inventory control means much stricter inventory tracking. As a result, you’ll have a clear picture of exactly what goods you have in which of your warehouses. Companies and businesses that lack proper communication between warehouses can easily double up on orders. Or even end up with a shortage of highly popular goods. All because the managers this that there is enough stock in other warehouses. Your inventory is the lifeline of your business, and your goods are essential for its success. This is exactly why people put so much effort into finding reliable professionals who can transport goods.
Inventory tracking is essential to every business.
You can save money through proper inventory control
The final reason for the importance of inventory control in warehouse management is the fact that it can help you save money. Just imagine the following warehousing scenario: You have one warehouse with strict inventory management. Employees here store inventory using meticulous organization. On the other hand, you have a warehouse with sloppy inventory management, and its employees do inventory with minimal care. The former will use up much less space to store the same volume of inventory. As a result, the company running that warehouse needs less storage space. Now, you apply the same mode of operation to all the company’s warehouses. If you do, they need fewer warehouses to store the same amount of goods. And since warehouse space is not cheap, they clearly come out ahead in profitability!
You can store a lot more goods in a warehouse with proper inventory control.
Implementing better inventory control in warehouse management
Being familiar with the importance of inventory control in warehouse management, it’s hard to justify not implementing it. However, note that you will need to put effort into employee training and changing their mindset before your implementation of inventory control is successful.
For over 30 years, 18 Wheels Logistics has strived to be the most customer-centric trucking, warehousing, and logistics company around. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 18 Wheels relies on experience and integrity to make customers happy and remain on the cutting edge of shipping and logistics management.
If you have any questions about this article or you would like to talk to us about your shipping needs, please call us at (604) 439-8938.
