Inventory management or inventory control is the process of monitoring the warehouse of a business to ensure that the stock is being used at the optimum level and is managed well. An inventory management software manages the following:

1. Stock from the time it is ordered
2.  Movement of the stock within a warehouse to multiple warehouses
3.  Status of the stock till it reaches its destination or disposal

In this blog post, we will throw light on the benefits and key features of the inventory management. 
So without any delay, let’s get started!
Before we walk you through, let’s understand the importance of inventory management. 

Why Is Inventory Management Important?

Inventory management allows you to track the status of your stock levels across all your warehouse locations across all the inventory phases. With the right inventory management, you can ensure that you never run out of a product and also prevent overstocking of a particular product. 
On top of that, it also helps you understand the demand to prepare a strategy to process more orders quickly. Additionally, inventory management benefits and prevents overselling and can help you improve the reputation of your organization. There are multiple ways by which the inventory management benefits your business.

Why Do You Need an Inventory Management System?

Proper inventory management improves the operational efficiency and allows you to perform the following operations:

1. Track the status of your stock
2. Streamline different processes
3. Inventory forecasting & planning

Here are the benefits of inventory management for your organization:

Automated Inventory Management

One of the biggest benefits of inventory management is to automate multiple operations and processes. Automation eliminates human error, saves time, and decreases the probability of mistakes. An automation system is capable of executing repetitive tasks with little assistance once you have set up some rules.
Automated inventory management enables you to have real-time visibility of your inventory levels. This feature plays a vital role in accurate forecasting and delivers a unique customer experience. It offers you real-time insights into where your stock is particularly in different locations such as a physical store or a warehouse with multiple sales channels.

Inventory Forecasting

Accurate demand forecasting helps you to keep up with the demand. Seasonal data can also be utilized to understand any changing patterns that require adjustments in stock at different times of the year. The inventory management helps you with accurate inventory forecasting to streamline order volumes.

Helps Prevent Overselling & Stock-Outs

Overselling is one of the biggest issues for growing eCommerce businesses and startups. In case you do not have supervision on your inventory, you might run out of stocks. Such a scenario is called stock-out. Stock-outs not only prevent your customers from returning to your business, but also suspend your business from entering certain marketplaces.
Inventory management process manages all your orders across all your sales channels and helps prevent stock-outs. With the right inventory management, you can easily replenish your stock and track them easily.

Reduces Your Business Costs

An advanced inventory management report tells you what you have in stock. This helps in managing your warehouse so you do not waste time looking for inventory that is not available at your warehouse. 

The inventory management saves your time and streamlines the following processes:

1.  Picking 
2.  Packing
3.  Shipping

With accurate data and insights, you can have a clear idea of the products your customers are interested in. Focusing on the products your customers are buying is a great way to cut down eCommerce costs.

Inventory Planning & Forecasting

Information management and accurate reporting are two key pillars to successfully running and growing a business. The inventory management process integrates with multiple marketplaces and sales channels. Such a system also smoothens shipping and third-party logistics (3PL) processes with real-time visibility across your organization. 

This further allows you to improve your business and reduces wastage in different costs including:

1. Unsold stock
2. Unwanted stock
3. Stock in the wrong locations

Improved Supply Chain Operations

Supply chain management involves tons of challenges. With the integrated inventory management system in place, different eCommerce businesses and retailers can efficiently prepare and incorporate a supply chain management. 
The more suppliers you have, the more you can narrow down the wait-time if a particular supplier cannot deliver on the deadline. You can prepare yourself for the next phase of your business-like peak season to order the right amount of stock from a supplier and prevent any order management issues.

Adding New Sales Channels

Ever wanted to try a new sales channel to list your products? An inventory management system smoothens the process of adding new sales channels and centralizes your inventory. With such a system in place, you can track the efficiency of your inventory in different locations. 
Inventory Synchronization and Forecasting are two key factors that help maintain your inventory control and allow you to sell your stock in multiple locations at once.

Establishes PAR Levels

PAR levels or Periodic Automatic Replenishment levels allow you to set an amount of inventory that should be available at all times. You should replenish your stock control when they reach these levels.
This allows you to balance and maintain the standard demand rate for specific items. The Periodic Automatic Replenishment level of an individual item varies but you can find out the accurate level using your average daily sales volume, the lead time and safety stock number for each product.

ABC Analysis

The demand for different products might not be the same and is unevenly distributed between your stock. ABC analysis enables you to streamline this uneven distribution by categorizing your products into three categories (A, B, C) based on the following parameters:

1. Demand
2. Supply
3. Value
4. Costs

Bifurcating your stock enables you to prioritize ordering specific items you have shortlisted.
So that is how inventory management benefits your business. Let’s now check out some key features you should expect in the inventory management for your business.

Key Features Of An Inventory Management System

Do you want to harness the power of the inventory management for your business? Are you facing problems related to increasing costs, low profitability, and efficiency issues?
Here are some features and benefits of inventory management to look out for in 2022.

Real-Time Tracking

1. Reflecting the status of the inbounds goods as soon as they are scanned at the warehouse
2. Managing your warehouse transfers
3. Eliminating the new assembly runs if the components were used in different operations
4. Tracking the consignment stock even if it is in a different store
5. Stock control

Real-Time Inventory Value

An inventory management process stays updated in real-time as per your accounting software. With such a system, you have access to:

1. Exact inventory values that are responsible for the volume and prices of your purchases
2. Multi-currency support for your vendors and buyers worldwide
3. A perfect line-view of your inventory according to different geographies
4. Ability to efficiently track the production wastage and courier fees
5. The ability to create product listings to offer a detailed view of your COGs (Cost Of Goods sold)
6. Ability to have profit margins on your products according to the sales channel and its location

Alerting Systems For Low Stocks

Sometimes you might not know the exact amount of stock you have. In such a case, a powerful inventory management needs to set automatic low stock alerts when a particular stock is running low. 
This gives you the insights and time frame to procure that stock or generate a purchase order for that particular stock. You need to prepare a reorder report that lists everything so you can manage your stock control.

Supplier & Purchase Management

With a proper inventory management tool, you have access to control your purchasing. Keep in mind that you should not waste time in transferring your inventory data into your purchasing process. The right inventory management allows you to:

1. Generate and fill your orders automatically
2. Store all your supplier orders and details
3. Generate quantity discounts for your suppliers for optimal purchasing
4. Check the transaction history of your suppliers
5. Receipt an order if your goods are scattered

Proper Reporting

Getting a fancy inventory management is meaningless if you have to manually extract all the data every month. The main benefit of inventory management is to reduce the admin operations and streamline automation.

Here is what to expect from an inventory management software for your business:

1. Margins
2. Unit sales
3. Stock control
4. Backorder rate
5. Inventory turnover rate
6. Average number of days to sell for each SKU

Bills Of Management (BOM)

Bills Of Management are the elements that define the uniqueness of an assembled product. If your inventory management manages your BOMs, it becomes very easy to order the right components in the right quantities for production.
An inventory management process auto-fills the purchase orders right from your BOMs. This allows you to nest multiple levels of BOMs for more assembled products. Apart from that, you can record the value of any production waste as well.

Serial Number Tracking

Similar to the batch tracking feature, serial number tracking has its unique identifiers. This feature allows you to have the serial number for tracking if you have high-value components. Serial Number Tracking also helps in after-sales service so you can offer a unique experience to your customers.

Batch Tracking

The right inventory management should offer a batch of inventory tracking feature. Batch tracking keeps you on top of the stock batches through which you can easily monitor the expiry dates, stock, condition of the goods and more before they lose their important feature for manufacturers who require robust traceability systems if they want to recall the status of their products.

Conclusion

Harness the power of the right inventory management process with TYASuite and increase profitability, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs at the same time. Our Cloud ERP suite automates your inventory management processes and saves time so you can focus more on growth and marketing. 

Get all this while having complete visibility into your stock movements and sales data to spot more growth opportunities. Contact Us today and mitigate your stock issues even before they arise!