For manufacturing businesses, inventory management and tracking is one of the most important aspects. If not done properly, businesses can lose control of their working capital. This will increase their operation costs and impact their overall production and supply chain. In this blog post, we will walk you through the basics of inventory management. We will also look at some of the best inventory management software for manufacturing businesses.
What Is Manufacturing Inventory Software?
Inventory management software for manufacturing is a system that supervises the flow of inventory levels of a company across stages. It includes everything from ordering to the warehouse and the manufacturing unit, and finally to the point of sale. Inventory is a core element of the entire supply chain of a business. In simple terms, manufacturing inventory software makes sure that the right materials are available for production and order management, at the right time.
Best Manufacturing Inventory Management Software
An inventory management software for manufacturing businesses can digitally keep track of the inventory and simplify operations. Choosing the right inventory management system is important for better inventory oversight and control. Let’s look at the 5 most useful inventory management software for manufacturing businesses:
1. Zoho Inventory
(4.7/5.0 Google Rating)
Zoho Inventory is a cloud-based inventory management software that helps businesses track and manage their inventory, orders, and deliveries. It allows users to create and manage product lists, set up purchase orders and vendor contracts, track inventory levels, and generate reports on sales and performance.
★ Features:
- Zoho Inventory helps you to automatically update inventory status with the help of barcodes.
- Its order management feature lets you track inventory status and receive real-time updates.
👍Pros:
- It offers live chat and phone support to resolve customer issues.
- It provides effective inventory tracking and enables you to create and manage relevant documents.
👎Cons:
- The paid plans might not be the most budget-friendly for SMEs.
2. TranZact
(4.6/5.0 Google Rating)
TranZact is a complete, cloud-based solution that helps business automate their operations. It is designed specifically for Indian SME manufacturers and integrates all essential operations for this sector. Unlike traditional ERP software, TranZact offers flexibility and customization. Its inventory management stands out in the manufacturing industry because of its advanced stock management capabilities. This includes the ability to monitor stock on a timely basis, set and view minimum and maximum stock levels, enable inventory optimization, and more.
★ Features:
- TranZact provides barcode tracking for smooth inventory monitoring and management. The use of barcodes on goods automates the updation of stock on the portal.
- With TranZact’s smart dashboard, you can analyze inventory numbers easily and make data-backed decisions.
- It also offers real-time forecasting. This helps you to stay prepared for the future market and deliver accordingly.
- With TranZact, you can categorize inventory based on different material types and costs.
- It also allows you to access multiple stores simultaneously and remotely. This helps inventory managers restock or control purchases easily.
👍Pros:
- TranZact can automate your purchase and re-ordering processes by allowing teams to track goods and raw materials across stores with ease.
- Its real-time monitoring feature helps avoid excess stock. This helps businesses to save significant working capital.
- Inventory integration with sales and production modules is another important advantage that TranZact provides.
- It helps you collaborate with different departments and use the data generated in all parts of your company for better decision-making.
- It also offers dedicated customer support for an unlimited period, with both free and advanced plans.
👎Cons:
- The software does not have much functionality beyond manufacturing processes.
- It does not have a POS system for payments.
- It can not be a complete solution for businesses with other needs of retail or wholesale.
3. Oracle Netsuite
(4.8/5.0 Google Rating)
Oracle NetSuite has a cloud-based inventory management software for manufacturing industry that offers a range of applications for financials, customer relationship management, e-commerce, and more. It helps businesses automate and streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and make better data-driven decisions. It is a comprehensive solution that can be customized to fit the specific needs of different industries and organizations.
★ Features:
- Oracle Netsuite offers inventory auditing features to track the type and cost of each inventory.
- Warehouse management ensures you stay updated on the raw and finished material ‘in transit’, or in the warehouse.
👍Pros:
- It offers active customer and documentation support.
- It supports warehouse management for businesses.
👎Cons:
- This inventory management software for manufacturing industry is not affordable for SMEs because of its high licensing and user fees.
- Its features are not highly suitable for Indian SME manufacturers.
4. Quickbooks
(4.3/5.0 Google Rating)
Quickbooks Commerce assists companies in creating a seamless workflow for eliminating inventory management issues such as sudden stocks and the obsolescence of materials.
★ Features:
- It handles multi-channel sales with inventory control and optimization functions.
- It helps to supervise purchase, sales and order management with automation.
👍Pros:
- The software enables an effective view of quantities on hand, to track reordering processes.
- It also provides customer support to companies.
👎Cons:
- This software is not the most suitable choice for SMEs because it does not come with a free package or a trial option.
- The quoted prices may be too high as compared to other available options.
5. inFlow Inventory
(4.6/5.0 Google Rating)
inFlow is an inventory management software that helps businesses track and manage their inventory, orders, and sales. It provides tools for forecasting demand, generating reports, and optimizing inventory levels to reduce waste and increase efficiency. With inFlow, businesses can improve their supply chain management, streamline their operations, and make informed decisions about their inventory.
★ Features:
- It allows users to manage and track past orders.
- The software simplifies invoice processing and acknowledgement receipts.
- It provides barcode scanning and reporting functions.
👍Pros:
- It offers a free trial for users.
- A maximum of six hours of setup support is provided.
👎Cons:
- Phone and chat support is limited.
- Features might vary based on case-to-case systems.
Why Use Manufacturing Inventory Management Software?
Every business can face challenges regarding stock. A good inventory management software for manufacturing helps companies take care of their production. It automates the unnecessary tasks that can be done by software. This reduces the chances of human error.
When you manage stock manually, you face problems like:
- not knowing how many items you have, whether raw or finished.
- buying too much stock due to wrong information
- running out of stock because you’re not keeping track well.
These issues are hard to handle because they require the combined effort of several departments. This includes sales, logistics, production, and purchase. Manufacturing and inventory management software can help you with that. This is why every manufacturing business should use a manufacturing inventory management system.
How To Choose The Best Manufacturing Inventory Software
To leverage inventory management software for manufacturing industry and reap its benefits, you need to make sure that you are selecting the right solution for your business needs. If you are looking for the right software for your company, you have to analyze some factors on your part. This includes your requirements and the kind of business you are:
1. Integrating Operations: Businesses that need an all-inclusive solution and want to integrate the different modules and departments should look for software like Tranzact that offers flexibility. In addition to flexibility, it gives you customizability as well as smooth integration.
2. Advanced Solution: One of the many reasons why managing inventory becomes a task is because of the complexity of multi-location businesses. If your production is set up in a particular state but your raw materials are stored and imported from other states, you would need a more capable solution that can manage multi-location inventory, while providing adequate capabilities for the same.
3. Business Size: Inventory management is one of the most important processes of inventory and manufacturing software. It is especially important for small and medium enterprises. If you do it manually, you may lose control over the inventory of your small businesses. Apart from singularly managing inventory, SMEs also have to monitor many other issues regularly.
4. Scalability Suitable: Small to medium-scale businesses are constantly growing. They always have to keep scalability in mind while signing up for any product. As your business grows, your needs will increase too. For that, you need to make sure that the software you use is compatible with your growing needs.
5. Cost-Effectiveness: The most important aspect of a small to medium business is the budget. While it is important that you find the software that will suit your business demands, it is also very important to keep the cost in mind. Considering everything from the upfront cost to ongoing cost. You should also consider the return on investment of the product.
Key Features of Inventory Management Software
Inventory software for manufacturing industry has many features. All of these features can help your operational tasks in an inventory management software for manufacturing inventory management systems that enable you to increase your ROI:
1. Bill of Material: The software automates the creation and management of the Bill of Material (BOM). This is very important to proceed with process planning and production. This makes sure that inventory teams are in sync with production requirements at all times.
2. Inventory costing: Inventory costing is the process of valuing the inventory after the valuation of goods sold. This software automates this process for you. It helps get the best stock valuation and costing, supporting order fulfilment without disturbing budget projections and allocations.
3. Real-time tracking: Unlike legacy systems, the software provides real-time inventory tracking. It offers live updates on stock le, where it’s based and when you might need to restock. This feature significantly improves inventory transparency.
4. Purchase and sales integration: The inventory and manufacturing software also has the capability to automate raising and tracking purchase and sales orders. When inventory is connected with all transactions, it will save your business a lot of effort and time.
Benefits of Manufacturing Inventory Software
Inventory management software for manufacturing has many benefits. It can help your company scale by increasing overall productivity and efficiency. Let’s take a deeper look into its benefits:
1. Inventory Control: Inventory management software for manufacturing improves productivity by showing real-time inventory. This reduces stock wastage, operational costs and production costs.
2. Live Dashboards: The system also has a live dashboard for sharing inventory data across departments. This reduces manual data for reporting and analysis and makes making decisions significantly easier.
3. System Integration: Inventory management software for manufacturing allows seamless integration. This lets different departments, including production, sales, and accounting, improve functions with live inventory insights.
4. Customer experience: Inventory management software for manufacturing improves customer service by providing high-quality products, and a digitized support system, creating memorable customer experiences.
5. Barcoding support: The best inventory management software for manufacturing supports barcode scanning for automating stock processes. This provides real-time stock updates and saves time on manual updates.
Grow Your Business With TranZact
A manufacturing inventory software can improve the efficiency of your manufacturing businesses. It can help you in tracking the product from start to finish. They are especially important for small to medium scale manufacturing businesses. TranZact is one such software solution, which is recommended by over 10,000 Indian SMEs.
TranZact is known for its centralized inventory, integrated with production, sales, accounting and purchases. It also provides a multilevel bill of material functionality to plan production material requirements without delays. It offers a customizable package deal that eases your operations and makes your inventory analysis intelligent.
FAQs
1. What is manufacturing inventory software?
Manufacturing inventory software is a system that helps businesses track and manage their inventory throughout the manufacturing process. It provides features such as inventory tracking, demand forecasting, production planning, order management, and reporting to optimize inventory levels and improve overall operational efficiency.
2. How to manage inventory in manufacturing?
Inventory in manufacturing can be managed through effective planning, data-driven forecasting, tracking, and optimizing production, and procurement activities.
3. How to control inventory in a manufacturing company?
Inventory in a manufacturing company can be controlled by adopting an automated and robust inventory management system. An inventory control system ensures complete visibility over all inventory operations with minimal effort, saving time and resources for a manufacturing business.
4. What are the 4 inventory methods?
The four main inventory methods used in businesses are First-In, First-Out (FIFO), Last-In, First-Out (LIFO), Singular Identification, and Weighted Average Cost.
5. What is the best inventory method for manufacturing?
The FIFO (First-In, First-Out) method is considered the best inventory method for manufacturing businesses as it accounts for the oldest inventory to be sold first. This helps ensure that the cost of goods sold reflects the actual cost of acquiring or producing the items, prevents wastage, and leads to a more accurate measure of inventory value.
6. How do manufacturing companies track inventory?
Many manufacturing companies still rely on paper-based documentation and manual audits to track inventory, which can lead to delayed detection of inventory losses. However, forward-thinking manufacturing SMEs are adopting automated inventory management software like TranZact to lower inventory costs and ensure effective inventory control.
7. Which software is best for inventory management?
If we consider all important parameters, such as the functionalities of the software, benefits, reliability, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness, TranZact comes up as the best inventory management software for manufacturing.
8. What are the five best manufacturing inventory management softwares?
The five best manufacturing inventory softwares are Zoho Inventory, TranZact, Oracle Netsuite, Quickbooks and inFlow Inventory.
9. Is it difficult to implement inventory management software?
The difficulty of implementing inventory management software depends on the software and the needs of your manufacturing business. However, many software providers offer complete implementation support to make sure that the process is smooth.
10. How much does manufacturing inventory management software cost?
The cost of inventory management software depends on the features, the number of users, and the provider. Some softwares is available on a subscription basis but some require a one-time purchase.
11. Can small to medium scale manufacturing businesses benefit from inventory management software?
Yes, small businesses can benefit from inventory management software. It can help them keep track of their stock levels, automate reordering processes, and gain insights into their product. This helps them save time and resources.
