If you run a warehouse or if have a lot of products that you need to organize, then you will know how important it is to keep track of everything. With that said, you do need to make sure that you aren’t making your business inefficient without realizing it. This guide will help you implement the right processes, so you can move forward with confidence.
First-in, First Out
The first thing you need to do is implement a first-in, first-out strategy. This strategy helps you to prioritize selling your oldest stock first, so you can make sure that you are not keeping hold of things for longer than you should be. FIFO plays a big role in keeping your goods fresh, and it also helps you to limit the overall financial loss you may experience from trying to sell expired or outdated items.
If you want to try and implement FIFO, then the first thing you need to do is make sure that you have a clear labelling process. This approach will help you to identify which stock you have to be using first and what you need to push most. It will also help you to stop spoilage, and it will also help you to track your inventory with ease. If you want to help yourself here, then you need to look into inventory management software, as this is a good way for you to get the overall result you need.
Performing an Audit
Another thing you need to do is try and perform an audit. Implementing an audit is a good way for you to get an accurate idea of your inventory count. This will help you to get a good idea of the consistent results you could be achieving, and it will also help you to have an idea of your actual stock count, so you do not spend all of your time trying to balance your actual inventory with your records. Although you can do a physical audit of the inventory you have, doing a manual count can be a good idea. You can then make sure that you are able to pinpoint the discrepancies, so you can stop things from affecting you at a later date.
Having an ABC analysis done is a good thing to do here, as you can then divide your inventory into three distinctive categories. If you have a pharmaceutical company, then you may want to organize things by the most expensive products you sell, so you can make sure that you are dispatching these easily.
Having moderate value items is always good as you may dispatch these on a moderate basis. Things like this can help you a lot and you would be surprised at how much it could help you to get the overall result you need.
As you go on, you may also have to do a reconciliation audit, as this will help you to make sure that you are not mistaking things like shrinkage, which is important during high-sales periods.
