Stock taking is a necessary task that can often cause more headaches than it resolves.
Checking your inventory regularly will help your business keep track of stock and check if there are any issues with the products in your warehouse, it will also indicate whether your stock management system is accurate and your processes are efficient. If your warehousing business regularly identifies anomalies when conducting stock takes, or your stock takes cause significant amounts of confusion for warehouse staff, it is definitely time to improve your process.
1. Define your methods
As with many areas of business when you’re about to undertake a large project, planning will help make the process much smoother. Noting the number of warehouse operatives you need to participate in the stock take, who will be counting which area, an estimated time for counting each area, and how best to minimise disruption for those continuing normal warehouse operations, will help to avoid confusion and simplify the tasks involved.
2. Cycle counting
As a method that allows for a section of the warehouse to be counted on a weekly or monthly basis, introducing cycle counting will not only decrease downtime for your warehouse operatives, but will also reduce the number of errors in the count. Annual stock taking methods uses up a lot of valuable time and resources, and can often take longer than estimated, whereas cycle counting significantly minimises business disruption as only a reduced number of staff need to participate in the stock take.
3. Leverage intuitive technologies
Leveraging technology to streamline the stock taking process will do even more to reduce errors and save a greater amount of time. Barcoding software can be used to scan product codes, alleviating the need for pen, paper, and having to read unreadable handwriting. Investing in technologies that helps to not only streamline stock taking methods but also other areas of warehouse operations, can help to increase capacity of your warehouse.
It’s important for warehousing businesses to create an efficient stock taking process so that errors are dealt with efficiently and risks are minimised. Leveraging intuitive technologies like barcoding warehouse management software, greatly improves the time it takes to complete stock taking, whilst increasing accuracy of the process. Cycle counting is also becoming the favoured way to manage and schedule stock takes, as it breaks the process into smaller segments, reducing the risk of miscounting inventory. Using both methods together will give your business the best chance of reducing mistakes, and will save your business valuable time and money.
Deciding on the processes that will work best for your warehouse can often be difficult to understand and easy to overcomplicate. If you would like an outside perspective on how your operations could be enhanced to increase productivity and simplify operations, our expert team of consultants will be happy to share their thoughts and insights, which have been gained from implementing intelligent technologies in a range of warehouse and manufacturing organisations.
Chat to us today by calling 03300 245452 or emailing info@bitsystemsltd.co.uk, and someone will be on-hand to answer your questions.