When I read the article “Five Steps to Painless Inventory Management,” I thought Christmas had come early this year. This article is full of ideas I can build on because everything the author, Lisa Girard, says either ties into Fishbowl Inventory or can be improved on by Fishbowl.
1. Too Much Inventory
To solve the problem of overstock, Girard suggests business leaders “Start with some decent projections of how much supply you’ll need and when you’ll need it.” The problem is: how do you get these projections? She seems to have skipped that important step. You need to have access to data on products and sales history. But reports that project how much supply you’ll need don’t just create themselves. If you try to pull the data from Excel spreadsheets or some other ad-hoc inventory management system, you could waste a lot of time. Fishbowl Inventory finds all the data you need and then generates reports that help you plan for supply needs, seasonal demand changes, optimum inventory levels and much more. It takes the guesswork out of inventory management and keeps your inventory levels balanced.2. Inaccurate Inventory Tracking
“Using electronic data interchange (EDI) and bar code scanning can help eliminate data entry errors.” Exactly! Girard hit it right on the head with this one, so I really don’t have much to add. To keep your inventory records accurate, you should stop entering data into a computer by hand and simply scan product barcodes. That way, you eliminate the possibility of typos creeping into the numbers. With a barcode reader and Fishbowl Mobile Warehouse software, you can receive products into your warehouse, place orders, cycle count inventory and much more.
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