In my last blog post, Quick Survey to Determine How Your Distribution System Measures Up, I wrote about how an ERP solution can more effectively give distributors the tools they need to manage every aspect of their businesses, from order entry and procurement to sophisticated inventory and shipment management.
We work with many distributors and time and time again we see that one of the biggest concerns of distributors is the need for more effective inventory management. Some of the issues include:
- Having too much of some products. This excess inventory and dead stock leads to decreased turnover and profitability.
- Experiencing stockouts of other products. This results in backorders, lost sales, and dissatisfied customers.
- Don’t know what is in stock. The on-hand quantity in their computer system does not agree with what is actually on the shelf in their warehouse.
- Can’t find material in their warehouse. They know the material is “out there somewhere” but they don’t know exactly where it is located.
Many distributors spend thousands of dollars implementing new software systems including ERP. Often these systems are purchased to help these companies gain control of what is probably their largest investment: their inventory. But sometimes distributors find that they are no better off after the new software is implemented than they were with their old system because they don’t have a system in place to effectively manage their inventory. The software doesn’t perform up to its potential because the on-hand or available quantities of products in the new software do not agree with what is physically in the warehouse.
If you’re a distributer experiencing these issues, than you’ll want to check out this from Effective Inventory Management guru, Jon Schriebfeder, to help get you on the right track to more effective inventory management.
For a more detailed discussion on how to get better control of your inventory, contact the experts at Borek. We’d be happy to talk with you more.
By Roger Borek, Borek Business Solutions, an .
I think the problem is that most businesses are intimidated by upgrading their management systems with a new software. More often than not, people are capable of using the new system; the problem is taking the time to familiarize themselves with it. allow companies to manage their product more efficiently with tools such as wireless barcode scanning and inventory management.