5 Supply Chain Management Inventory Tips, from WDS Inc.
5 Supply Chain Management Inventory Tips to Make Sure You Never Run Out of Products Again
Effectively managing your inventory is a balancing act that you need to execute to perfection. You can’t have excess inventory filling your warehouses. At the same time, you can’t run out of your fastest-selling items. Either scenario bodes disaster. Since inventory management is crucial for the long-term success of your company, we’ve put together 5 basic tips for your success with supply chain management.
- Establish accurate and timely inventory projections
Figure out how much inventory you need and when you need it. Start by looking at how much inventory you’ve sold in previous months. For example, if you’ve averaged 100 blue women’s V-neck sweater sales each month for the past year, it’s likely that you’ll continue to sell 100 per month on average for the next year. Don’t forget to consider seasonal trends as well. While you may sell sweaters all year round, most people are going to buy them during the fall, winter, and early spring months. So break down your historical averages into seasonal, or even monthly, increments. You want to make sure that you keep inventory stocked to handle these peak sale periods. Averaging over the entire year creates projections that may have you stocking too much inventory during the summer months, when you probably will need that space for different items.
If you deal in perishable inventory management, then your projections must also consider expiration dates to fully manage inventory projections. How often you restock should take shelf-life into account.
