Effective inventory management is essential for any business that buys or sells products, regardless of the size or nature of the business.
Inventory management systems give you detailed insights into your stocks, assist you in keeping track of supplies, and eventually help you in maintaining the supply chain. Moreover, the solution enables businesses to better serve their customers while reducing administrative workload.
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In this comprehensive blog post on the importance of inventory management, we’ll examine some critical areas related to the topic, including its definition, and the key advantages.
What Is Inventory Management Process?
Inventory management is a process that monitors the flow of goods from manufacturers to warehouses to points of sale. It employs a variety of data to track goods as they move through the process.
Keeping a detailed record of each supply is critical for any company for various reasons, including preventing fraudulent activities, navigating demand fluctuation, and providing better customer service.
Inventory management plays a more critical role or becomes necessary when the organization is large or handles a wide and complex range of items. In such a scenario, an advanced inventory management system that can be integrated with accounting software, and ERP systems, and are customizable is required.
Inventory Management Vs Supply Chain Management: What’s the Difference?
The main difference between inventory management and supply chain management (SCM) is that, whereas inventory management strives to maintain optimal stocks of necessary items in the organization, supply chain management manages the entire product flow of a good or service.
In other words, inventory management is part of larger supply chain management. Effective inventory management eventually ensures the smooth operation of supply chain management.
Another notable difference between inventory management and supply chain management is the activities involved. For example, inventory management entails ordering, storing, using, and selling a company’s inventory. In contrast, supply chain management entails operations such as planning and forecasting, purchasing, product assembly, moving, storage, distribution, sales, and customer service.
Importance of Inventory Management
For several reasons, inventory management is crucial, especially in medium- and large-sized organizations. Firstly, it gives you a thorough understanding of the stocks or items you currently have, what needs to be ordered or refilled, what products are in high demand, what products are merely taking up shelf space, and so forth.
In general, successful inventory management assists companies in efficiently controlling supply and demand.
Another factor that manifests the need for inventory management is to maintain the company’s financial health. By analyzing data analytics and market trends, you can improve demand forecasting and supply planning, thereby avoiding unnecessary investment or capital blockages.
In addition to these two major reasons, good inventory management is required for:
- Reducing on-hand inventory and avoiding excess inventory.
- Getting a real-time view of inventory across multiple locations and sales channels.
- Making an inventory forecast for a specific period or event.
- Creating detailed reports and analytics based on historical data and market trends.
- Maintaining low inventory costs while exceeding customer expectations.
We believe that these reasons are sufficient to establish the significance of inventory management for businesses that buy or sell products.
Benefits of Inventory Management
You have definitely gained a good understanding of the need for inventory management from the section. However, to better understand this idea, look at the advantages of inventory management listed below.
1. Centralized stock movement control
When you run a large-scale business with an extensive product line consisting of hundreds of products, keeping track of each of them and their raw materials is a complex task. Handling all of these items manually is not only error-prone but also time-consuming and labor-intensive.
However, with the help of an effective inventory management system for business, you can gain centralized control over all items, regardless of whether you manage one warehouse or multiple.
Another advantage of a good inventory management system is that it allows you to easily navigate demand fluctuations. When you have real-time stock updates and other information about market trends and future demand, you can better plan your strategy, procure the necessary raw materials, and successfully manage seasonal or fluctuating demands.
By maintaining consistent market supply, you can not only strengthen your brand’s reputation but also enhance the customer experience.
3. Advanced sales analytics and demand forecasting
The next advantage of using an effective inventory management system is that it allows you to forecast inventory requirements for a specific period or event. Inventory forecasting is a practice that involves forecasting necessary inventory levels for a future period using historical data, market trends, and known upcoming events.
When you have an accurate demand forecast for a specific product during a specific period, you can plan its manufacturing and material procurement. Demand forecasting eventually assists you in fulfilling customer orders while avoiding tying up cash flow in unnecessary inventory.
4. Improved customer satisfaction
The fourth reason you need a good inventory management system, or the benefit of inventory management, is that it allows you to better serve your customers’ needs and increase their satisfaction.
When you have accurate demand projections and never fail to supply the necessary products in the market or to the customers, you will develop a strong brand reputation for your business among the customers. These customers will eventually become cult customers who will always prefer you over your competitors.
5. Overall cost reduction
The next significant advantage of a good inventory management system is cost reduction. With real-time updates on stock movements across all sales channels, you can avoid overstocking, get rid of deadstock, and manufacture the necessary products.
Besides that, the system allows you to generate granular reports on sales performance and determine the next best step to generate more revenue. All of these factors will assist businesses in being cost-effective.
6. Organized storage facility
Another critical reason for inventory management is to keep your warehouse in an excellent state. It is understandable that managing a warehouse manually is a difficult task, especially when there are multiple warehouses located in different locations.
However, advanced stock inventory management software can help you manage the flow and movement of raw materials and finished products more efficiently. A well-organized warehouse eventually eliminates waste, prevents health and safety issues, reduces maintenance costs, and represents the professionalism of the company.
7. Satisfied suppliers and vendors
Inventory management not only helps you keep customers happy, but it also helps you keep vendors and suppliers happy. Leveraging the insights provided by inventory management software about which products sell and in what volume, you can negotiate better prices and terms with suppliers.
You can also keep suppliers and vendors informed about stock status, which allows them to pass the same information to their customers as soon as possible. This gives customers enough time to find an alternative solution for the time being. If there is no such communication between you and your suppliers, end users are likely to suffer and lose trust in your brand.
To summarize, detailed inventory management mitigates every potential threat to the company’s stock and supply.
Disadvantages of Inventory Management
Inventory management also has a negative side. Below are some of the key disadvantages of inventory management. Let’s review them one by one.
1. Initial higher cost
The first disadvantage of inventory management is that you will need to purchase a battery of resources in order to upgrade your entire inventory infrastructure. Additionally, you may need to rent or purchase new space to store the inventory in an organized fashion. This initial or setup cost may be a challenging factor for small businesses or startups operating on a tight budget.
2. Require skilled human resources
Another disadvantage of inventory management is that it necessitates skilled labor to operate tools and technologies, monitor performance, and perform other necessary operations. All your investment in infrastructure and technology stack will be wasted if you don’t have the right people to manage the inventory.
3. Recurring administrative costs
The third significant disadvantage of inventory management is that it comes with recurring costs. For example, when erecting a modern inventory infrastructure, you will certainly require to purchase an inventory management software subscription. Also, you will need to hire a dedicated team of employees to manage the inventory department. These recurring expenses can eat up a sizable portion of your budget.
When making a final decision, keep these inventory management disadvantages in mind.
Conclusion
Inventory management is undoubtedly one of the most crucial components of any business that buys or sells products. Through efficient inventory projection and management, you can accomplish several business objectives, including higher customer satisfaction, cost savings, and a real-time view of inventory across all locations and sales channels. However, in order to achieve inventory management benefits, you must invest in the best inventory management tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) goods, and finished goods are the most important aspects of a proper inventory management process.
Effective inventory management is important for businesses that buy and sell goods. It assists them in keeping track of all your supplies, reducing inventory on hand, avoiding stock outs, and forecasting inventory on time.
Inventory records are digital documents containing information about the type and amount of stock an entity possesses. This typically includes current stock, pending orders, goods in progress, raw materials, and finished goods, among other things.
Paras Kela is a web developer turned content writer who holds writing expertise in multiple niches. The strong cocktail of his English-medium schooling, passion for writing, and vast industry experience help him create information-rich, SEO-friendly, engaging content. In his spare time, he enjoys binge-watching drama series & documentaries, gardening and spending time with loved ones.
