A common challenge for both small and large companies is how to handle inventory problems and solutions. The many processes involved in inventory management mean you need to keep a careful eye on your items. Knowing this is crucial for understanding inventory inefficiency.
Otherwise, your products can easily get lost or damaged. This task can become even more challenging without the right tools and strategy.
Impacts Of Inventory Management
Inventory management is an essential element for operating a profitable business. A recent case study concluded that this has a positive and significant relationship with a companys profitability. It said that 36% of the increase in a companys profit can be attributed to the improvement in its control and transparency.
On the other hand, handling this area poorly can cost your company time and money. Worse, it can even cost you your entire business as well. You can easily lose track of your stock levels without efficient inventory management. This can result in either overstocking or understocking.
Both of which could further cause:
- Missed sales
- Lost customers
- Excessive warehousing costs
- Exceeded products shelf life (spoilage)
There have been many stories of large corporations losing billions of dollars due to inventory inefficiency resulting in frequent stockouts. Hence, you must identify what are the factors affecting inventory control to avoid potential issues along the way.
5 Factors Leading To Inventory Inefficiency
5 Inventory Inefficiency Factors
1) Lack of proper planning
The management of an inventory deals with more than just stock levels. It also involves the sourcing, storing, and selling of your products. Hence, it deals with multiple locations, agencies, and processes at once. Each one is interdependent with one another.
When one part encounters an issue, the whole operation can be affected. This can be in the form of delays, liabilities, or stock damages. Failure to plan each step of your can cause inventory inefficiency.
For example, a flower shop failed to plan for Valentines Day. As a result, they forgot to increase their orders of flowers in preparation for the event. So when Valentines Day finally arrived, they ran out of flowers to sell, and thus, missed out on gaining more profit for that day.
If the florist would have planned ahead of time or used inventory management software like ProfitBooks, this loss would have been avoided.
Planning is a crucial element avoid inventory inefficiency. This will allow you to determine whether or not your stock levels are sufficient for the time being.
To help you with your planning, you can hire people with careers in logistics. These are individuals who are responsible for developing and implementing logistics plans which include inventory & warehouse management, plus procurement.
avoid inventory inefficiency
2) Miscommunication and poor coordination
Having a plan is only the first step in your avoid inventory inefficiency operation. You must also make sure that everyone involved in the process is adequately informed of the plan. This includes your suppliers, vendors, warehouse managers, transporters, and the rest of your employees. Any miscommunication at any part can result in poor coordination among the stakeholders.
Unfortunately, miscommunication and poor coordination are common issues in inventory inefficiency and disruption in the supply chain. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with your suppliers and vendors.
After all, suppliers and vendors are separate entities from your business. They arent as bound to follow your orders compared to your employees. Hence, they can sometimes become unreliable and unpredictable factors in your inventory operation.
You must vet your suppliers and vendors properly. Make sure that you only partner with reliable companies so that you can avoid any conflicts in the long run. This requires you to do your due diligence and research the background of any potential partner companies before you agree with them.
Inventory inefficiency management in Profitbooks
3) Failure to monitor
Another factor leading to Inventory inefficiency is poor tracking or monitoring. While trust is an important element in maintaining proper coordination with the stakeholders in your inventory operations, it isnt enough to ensure that everything will go smoothly.
Anything can still happen at any time, especially when you least expect it. It is important that you can immediately act on it before things get worse. As it may cause not just inventory inefficiency, but also can cause other issues.
What you need is proper tracking and monitoring of your inventory process. Without it, you might only find out about the issues in your operations when it is too late. By then, the damage would be done, and you have no choice but to pay for the consequences.
Consider investing in inventory management software, like ProfitBooks One of the benefits of an inventory system is that it gives you a comprehensive overview of your inventory operations. It informs you of the conditions of your products upon their arrival at the warehouse up until it reaches the shelves.
This way, you are always aware of the whereabouts and conditions of your stocks.
4) Inaccurate forecasting
Your planning is only as good as your forecasting. So when you are dealing with inaccurate data and forecasts, your plan might cause inventory inefficiency as well. Lets go back to the previous example with the flower shop.
Knowing that its Valentines Day is not enough data for you to determine how many flowers to order from your suppliers. You can still end up overstocking or understocking your shop.
But if you have historical data on how many sales you made in the past years during Valentines Day, you now have a clearer idea of how much stock you should prepare for that day.
On the other hand, if the historical data itself is inaccurate, then your forecasting will be inaccurate as well. Hence, you still risk overstocking or understocking your flower shop. This can sometimes happen if you only rely on manual data gathering and analysis. Hence, you must invest in reliable data and analytics tools. You can set up a more efficient plan with better forecasting set up a more efficient inventory management plan.
5) External and uncontrollable factors
Sometimes, even with all the planning, coordination, and accurate data you have for your inventory operations, you might still encounter some problems. This is mostly due to external factors affecting inventory operations that are beyond human control. This includes the weather, natural calamities, accidents, and minor coincidences which can result in stock damage.
These are factors that nobody can anticipateeven with all the sophisticated analytics and forecasting tools. The best that you can do is to set extra measures as precautions. For example, you can get insurance for your products to minimize the loss in case it gets lost or damaged due to natural causes.
Track inventory to avoid inventory inefficiency
Overcoming the challenges
Managing inventory and avoiding inventory inefficiency can be a long and tedious process. With so many factors to consider, it is almost impossible to do everything manually. You need to leverage the right technologies to make sure that everything goes well. What you need is inventory software.
According to a recent report, demands for such software will reach over $5 billion by 2026 as more businesses embrace digital transformation in their processes. The software can provide you with tools to improve control and visibility in your inventory operations. This includes:
- Workflow automation
- One-click purchase orders
- Sales order management
- Inventory tracker
- Report generation
Conclusion
Aside from inventory management software, there are other tools you can use as well.
ProfitBooks, for one, is accounting software that can also help you manage your inventory. Its inventory management feature goes hand in hand with invoice and expense tracking so that you can have a more comprehensive overview of your business finances.
So go ahead and check it out. It’s free to get started.
FAQs
What are some common signs of inventory inefficiency in a business?
Common signs of inventory inefficiency in a business include frequent stockouts or backorders, high carrying costs, obsolete or expired inventory, excessive lead times, and inaccurate demand forecasting. These indicators suggest that the business is facing challenges in effectively managing its inventory, which can lead to various negative consequences.
How does inventory inefficiency impact a business?
Inventory inefficiency has significant impacts on a business. It results in increased carrying costs, such as expenses for storage, insurance, and potential obsolescence. It can also lead to decreased cash flow as capital gets tied up in excess inventory or stockouts affect sales. Additionally, inefficient management reduces profitability, lowers customer satisfaction due to stockouts or delays, and increases the risk of waste and obsolescence.
How does inventory inefficiency impact a business?
Inventory inefficiency has significant impacts on a business. It results in increased carrying costs, such as expenses for storage, insurance, and potential obsolescence. It can also lead to decreased cash flow as capital gets tied up in excess inventory or stockouts affect sales. Additionally, inefficient management reduces profitability, lowers customer satisfaction due to stockouts or delays, and increases the risk of waste and obsolescence.
What are the common causes of inventory inefficiency?
Several factors contribute to inventory inefficiency. These include the lack of real-time visibility into inventory levels and movements, inaccurate demand forecasting, manual processes prone to errors and delays, inefficient order fulfillment systems, and inadequate supplier management. Addressing these issues is crucial to improve the management of inventory.
What are some strategies to improve inventory efficiency?
To enhance inventory efficiency, businesses can implement various strategies. This includes adopting inventory management software to automate and streamline processes, optimizing demand forecasting using historical data and analytics, adopting just-in-time or lean inventory principles to align procurement with demand, streamlining order fulfillment processes through efficient systems, and conducting regular inventory audits to identify and address inaccuracies and obsolescence.
How can technology help in improving inventory efficiency?
Technology plays a vital role in improving inventory efficiency. Inventory management systems provide real-time visibility, automate reorder points, and optimize inventory control. Barcode or RFID technology enables accurate tracking and counting of inventory, reducing manual errors. Data analytics helps identify patterns and trends for better planning and forecasting. Integration with suppliers and customers facilitates seamless information sharing and coordination. Automation and robotics can improve efficiency and accuracy in warehousing and order fulfillment processes.
And if you are a small business owner an investment in Inventory software like ProfitBooks will also work.
Also, read:
12 Inventory management techniques to cut losses
How to choose an inventory management software
How To Setup Efficient Inventory Management System
Inventory Turnover Formula
