Top 5 Questions to Ask When Optimizing Inventory Management Processes

Because inventory is your wholesale distribution business’s most significant asset, using the best inventory management technology to streamline and optimize your warehouse operations is crucial.

In addition to your warehouse and on-shelf availability, proper inventory management also affects loss prevention, financial audits, and customer satisfaction. Things can get tricky if you have more than one warehouse and a large volume of SKUs; add in today’s supply chain disruptions, and it’s not surprising that distribution businesses struggle with inventory management.

If you use spreadsheets and a small business accounting application like QuickBooks to manage your inventory, you’re likely experiencing:

• Unknown availability of items
• Unknown location of items
• Excess inventory
• Out-of-stock situations
• Overstocking
• Poor warehouse organization
• Inaccurate or inefficient inventory tracking methods

If even one of these pain points sounds familiar, it’s time to reevaluate your software and processes. Here are five questions to ask about:

Integration

Is your inventory data scattered across multiple applications? Are you re-entering information, making mistakes, and wasting time?

Demand

Can your inventory stock meet the demands of orders made through all your business lines?

Automation

Do you have automated processes to control your inventory’s receipt, reordering, and rotation?

Control

Can you control what merchandise comes in, when it arrives, and from which invoice or lot number?

Forecasting

Does your current system deliver accurate reports on your inventory stock and past demands to help you make informed decisions for future purchasing and orders?

While these challenges seem overwhelming, the good news is that you can overcome them with a powerful cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Cloud ERP solutions improve inventory management processes in every way. With real-time data integrated on one easy-to-use system, every member of your distribution business gets vital inventory information. That means your accounting department can monitor inventory value and create more effective purchasing budgets. Your sales and customer service representatives can check on item availability, move more valuable products, and land more big sales—whether they’re in the office or on the road.

With cloud ERP, you can meet your customers’ demands for more choices, faster fulfillment, and lower prices. The solution gives you a single, transparent view of your warehouse and distribution operations and integrates with financials, operations, customer relationship management (CRM), inventory, and payroll to optimize inventory and boost customer satisfaction.

Learn More

Our free eBook Inventory Management in a Changed Marketplace highlights the top issues facing distributors right now—and critical considerations that can help you significantly improve operational efficiency. Get it below to understand how inventory management can be easier and how small changes can affect your operations in a big way.