Warehouse Inventory Management Software: Benefits & Features

Warehouse Inventory Management Software: Benefits & Features

Distributors that don’t have current warehouse inventory management software struggle to manage inventory successfully. They face significant challenges in supplying to customers that frequently don't want to store supplies and need their goods delivered on a just-in-time basis to match delivery schedules. These challenges have been significantly exacerbated by the global supply chain crises of the past few years. Worse, many wholesale distributors are using outdated technology and struggle to tie things out across multiple software solutions and even spreadsheets.

Do You Have the Right Warehouse Inventory Management Software?

The first and most important consideration is whether you have the right warehouse inventory management software system in place to track your inventory. If you are using multiple systems and/or manual methods and spreadsheets, you don’t have the right system.

Benefits of Warehouse Inventory Management Software

Putting in place the right warehouse inventory management software can lead to many benefits for your business.

Improved Accuracy

Automation reduces human error in data entry, order processing, and inventory tracking. Barcode integration ensures accurate item identification and movement.

Real-time Visibility

You gain instant visibility into your inventory levels, locations, and movements. This helps prevent stockouts, overstocking, and allows for better demand forecasting.

Optimized Inventory Levels

The software helps you maintain optimal stock levels by setting up automatic reorder points based on historical data and demand forecasts. This reduces excess inventory and carrying costs.

Reduced Stockouts

By having better visibility into stock levels and automated reordering, you can significantly reduce instances of stockouts.

Enhanced Efficiency

Streamlined processes, automated order management, and optimized picking and packing lead to increased efficiency in warehouse operations.

Reduced Costs

With accurate demand forecasting and inventory optimization, you can reduce excess inventory and associated holding costs. Automation also saves time and labor costs.

Faster Order Fulfillment

Efficient order processing, accurate picking, and faster packing and shipping lead to quicker order fulfillment, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.

Optimize Warehouse Layout

Better organize your warehouse space more effectively, ensuring that items are stored in the most efficient and accessible manner.

Better Decision Making

Access to real-time data and analytics empowers you to make informed decisions about purchasing, restocking, and inventory management strategies.

Supplier Collaboration

Tighter control and supplier coordination leads to better supply chain control.

Data-driven Insights

Warehouse inventory management software reports and analytics provide insights into inventory turnover, stock movement patterns, and other key metrics that can inform your strategies.

What to Look for in Warehouse Inventory Management Software?

The right warehouse inventory management software should allow you to implement several key business processes. Together these business processes will help you better track and manage your inventory, reduce errors, reduce costs, increase efficiency, and deliver better customer satisfaction.

Accurately Track Inventory in Real-Time

You need warehouse inventory management software that helps you optimize your inventory levels to balance between no stockouts and minimizing the investment in inventory. To do this the software must:

• Reflect every transaction affecting inventory levels in real time
• Let you see by product how your inventory breaks down by status On-hand, On Orders, In Picking, On Back Order, On Purchase Order, On Special Order, On Future Orders, across multiple warehouses.
• Allow you to drill into each of these statuses to see which transactions are in each stage.

Cloud-Based System

You need cloud-based warehouse inventory management software that allows all users to:

• Access accurate inventory levels at all times
• From anywhere inside or outside the warehouse
• Using any device, even mobile phones.

Automate Inventory Replenishment

Your warehouse inventory management software needs to fully automate the process of inventory replenishment. You need to be able to:

• Set reorder parameters based on your desired safety stock level, lead times for obtaining replenishment stock, product use rates and reordering cycle
• Update these reorder parameters periodically based on actual experience over recent periods, not just estimates
• Automatically create purchase orders for the goods you need re-supplied.

Centralized Purchasing

If you have multiple warehouses, the warehouse inventory management software should be able to support centralized purchasing models:

• All warehouses should be able to build their own purchase orders (POs)
• Then warehouses should submit their POs to a centralized purchasing function that can consolidate and place these POs with vendors
• This takes advantage of volume discounts offered by suppliers and reduces the possibility of some warehouses overbuying to meet discount thresholds
• A centralized purchasing function combined with a robust warehouse transfer system can also take best advantage of volume freight rates and cut down on ordering mistakes.

Track Your Goods Through the Supply Chain

Given recent supply chain issues, you need your warehouse inventory management software to be able to track your goods from the time they leave the manufacturer’s factory to arrival at your warehouses. To get this visibility you need to be able to:

• Select PO lines that are completed from multiple POs and allocate them to specific Containers
• Then based on the negotiated terms with your suppliers get these Containers to a port and onto a vessel
• Track the whereabouts of the Container in real-time to be able to proactively address delays and/or re-routing and so minimize port demurrage and detention costs
• Access a full Landed Costs capability including support for HTSUS tariffs, to correctly reflect all supply chain costs correctly into the goods received so you can price products accurately.

Improve Purchase Order Receiving

Warehouse personnel are often rushed leading to POs that don’t get properly received. This can create errors when you tie out your PO Receipts. Ideally your warehouse inventory management software should provide the flexibility to:

• Either, verify PO deliveries on the unloading dock and then subsequently do the put-away to the warehouse bins
• Or, if needed, do simultaneous verification and put-away
• Making this process straightforward and allowing for various possible process flows will result in better receiving and put-away of goods, leading to less loss and/or inventory errors.

Optimize Warehouse Layout and Product Placements

Optimizing your warehouse layout will make the best use of the physical space available. Using data from your warehouse inventory management software you should:

• Optimize the warehouse layout, so that goods can come into and flow out of the warehouse in the most efficient fashion. This can cut down on warehouse costs significantly.
• Plan the product placement, to reduce trips through the warehouse. This can substantially reduce inventory mistakes as well as improve the cost of picking, packing and shipping orders from the warehouse.
• Reduce congestion and improve the safety of your warehouse and inventory operations. This can have a big cost benefit in reducing workplace injuries from forklifts and pallet jacks.
• Assign multiple locations within a warehouse for a specific product and track inventory of the product at each such location. This will improve flow for multiple pickers to safely access products efficiently.

Wireless WMS system

Inventory management will be substantially improved if your warehouse inventory management system allows for the use of handheld wireless devices combined with barcode scanners to support all warehouse operations:

• Improve speed of all warehouse operations from picking, packing, shipping orders, receiving and put-away of purchase orders
• Increases flexibility of the business processes and cuts down on mistakes and manual entry errors that can affect your inventory levels.
• Also allows you to do more frequent inventory cycle counting to better control physical inventory.

Allow for Partial Shipment of Orders and Special Orders

You need a warehouse inventory management software system that includes sophisticated capabilities for:

• Orders to be partially shipped and/or filled from multiple warehouses to facilitate just-in time delivery to customers
• Special Orders that link a specific order line to a specific purchase order line that can then be drop-shipped or cross-docked eliminating the need for these products to be brought into stock.

Full Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

Your warehouse inventory management software should provide extensive:

• Reporting capabilities that will allow you to make better data-driven decisions
• Business Intelligence capabilities that can let you explore your data to isolate trends down to their underlying causes
• Demand forecasting tools that will let you plan better.

Summary - Warehouse Inventory Management Software

If you need help identifying the right warehouse inventory management software for your business, contact us. Let us show you how Accolent ERP cloud-based warehouse inventory management software can help your business to excel.