Tracking your inventory on real time helps to monitor the location, quantity and the status of product simultaneously at the same time and at any given moment. It helps in the optimization of order fulfilment activities because it reduces cost and improve customer satisfaction which helps you as an organisation gain competitive advantage.
To realize this objective, you need an inventory tracking system in your organisation. Just like every other investment decision, you’ll need to know how you’re currently managing your inventory and the challenges you’re having with meeting your goals. Below would be some considerations to have in mind;
- How many locations and distribution channels you have?
- How frequently the inventory has to be updated?
- Customer requirements/preferences.
- The regulatory compliances in the industry.
A good analytical insight into these factors will present you the functional requirements of an inventory tracking system that is tailored to the needs of your organisation.
There are definitely different methods for implementing an inventory management system, all will consider the cost and benefit of the features they implement because it should meet the need of the organization and also be within the budget. In should also meet industry security requirement, be compatible with the current platform and scalable to meet the growth need of the organisation. Maybe is worth to mention some major tools that drive the real time inventory systems, such as sensors, GPS devices, QR codes and RFIDs. Implementation of any of these tools depends on the type, size, value and process requirement of the inventory.
Effective inventory tracking system begins with a sanitized inventory data collection across business functions, such as marketing, sales, accounting and customer service. This harmonisation of data collection and an analytic insight into the data will help the business make informed decisions based on accurate and real time information. To make this happen, there has to be a culture of process discipline and training to make system users conversant with the new tools and software applications deployed. The material management teams should also fellow best practises in inventory management. Besides putting all the necessary conditions in place to effectively track your inventories in real time, you have to
- Communicate the expectations of the business from the new inventory system.
- The benefit it creates for the entire business and to the users individually.
- Request and encourage them to give feedback to facilitate improvement.
- Monitor and evaluate system performance.
- Monitor and evaluate overall impact, make adjustment if necessary.
Most times inventory tracking systems fall under continuous improvement projects hence not a one-time project. The need to maintain competitive edge demands you adapt the system to changing customer behaviour and market trends. This invariably means you have to leverage latest innovations and technology to the improve efficiency of your inventory tracking possibilities to stay in front of competition. Amongst the latest technologies we have at the moment, before the emergency of the next, are artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain.