How does Total Stock Awareness optimise your warehouse?

Inventory management and stock control are always high priorities in any warehouse optimisation process. But what might “optimum” mean in this context? What would be the best possible outcome for your warehouse in the field of stock control. 

The short answer is one word. Totality. In three words “Total stock awareness”. Something that IWS can and does offer.  All the information about every last item, product, component, or object. Exactly where it is. When it was put there. What condition it’s in. Available and explainable all times. 

Total stock awareness might seem like a gargantuan logistical and organisational challenge. One that you could imagine your business managing without. You could imagine approximation as an appropriate alternative, depending on the stage of your business growth, your ambitions in the wider market, and the imagined expectations of your clientele/customer base. 

But if total stock awareness is a reality that’s within reach, why wouldn’t you want it?

Not only is it available, affordable, and the new market baseline, it comes with a host of advantages. Consider the following five. 

First – Safety and security 

Storing items in exactly the right way can mean a safer and more secure warehouse. Certain product types might need to be kept away from others. One item’s packaging might need extended quarantining, while another can reach general storage with simpler and shorter screening procedures.  

Total stock awareness means you can be completely certain the heaviest items are always being kept at the base of certain shelving units. You can always know that fragile items are being kept away from firmer surfaces or hazardous drops. With complete stock control and comprehensive inventory management, you can be secure in the knowledge that your warehouse is as safe and secure as possible.

Second – Stop the unexpected stockout 

Stockouts might not be a problem in and of themselves. Reasonable clients/customers understand that not every product can be always available at every moment of every day. What’s less forgivable are unexpected stockouts. Ones that happen after orders are placed, or when situations should have been better known. These are seriously damaging to the reputation of any business, and can be stopped.  

With a situationally omniscient WMS that provides complete stock awareness, your inventory management and stock control can be so completely comprehensive that unexpected stockouts become a thing of the past. 

Third – Expedited efficiency 

Everyone wants their warehouse working for all it’s worth. Products must move with pace. Picking and packing speeds should always be superlative. Imagine how much easier and more intuitive that becomes when you know exactly where everything is at all times.  

Not only does this eliminate the egregious errors of pickers looking for mistakenly misplaced items. It also ensures pick routes can be confidently chosen for maximum efficiency. You know that item X is stored alongside product Y, which makes a route containing both, with a stopover for component Z, much quicker. 

Total stock awareness means you can achieve the highest possible level of efficiency in your inventory management. Pick plans can be perfected, not just approximated. 

Fourth – Customer confidence 

Complete stock control isn’t just about you and your staff knowing everything and planning best practice around picking and packing. It also means your customers and clientele can be better informed about what you can offer.  

This goes beyond merely knowing that an item is available. You can tell them how long you’ve had it. The condition it’s currently in. If it’s perishable, you can say when it might expire. If it’s made as part of a batch, you can tell them which one it came from.  

Total stock awareness gives you the ability to project complete and utter confidence to any and all potential clientele. Inventory management isn’t something that customers care about overtly, but they are interested in the information it delivers as a byproduct. 

Fifth – Future focusing 

Industries shift. Business practices change. Operational expectations fluctuate. No one works in a market that stays perpetually static. New rules could mean new safety procedures come into effect, or more information about the items you sell needs to be more publicly available. New ideas about how and where things are stored could mean you need to rearrange your warehouse.  

New exterior difficulties like pandemics or other contamination questions could require more rigorous monitoring of your warehouse. If you have a system in place that gives you complete stock control and near omniscient inventory management, you are one step ahead of any such problem already. 

Total stock awareness is just one of the many possible advantages offered by a properly put together WMS. But there are even more advantages on offer when you bring such a system together with a WCS and WES. 

A single harmonised software suite for your entire warehouse. That is what Invar Warehousing Software – IWS can offer your business. 

 

 

Total stock awareness is just the beginning. To see the full extent of how IWS can optimise your warehouse, enter your name and email information below.