Real-time inventory tracking is essential to a business's performance for both supply and demand reasons. Continue reading to learn more about real-time inventory tracking management, its advantages, and how TranZact can help you streamline your supply chain processes.
What Is Real-Time Inventory?
Real-time inventory tracking makes it possible to track, view, and manage inventory levels across the whole supply chain on demand.
Better inventory management and visibility can make your supply chain stronger. This means you can meet customer demand, restock inventory on time, plan for surprises, and keep your business running.
Benefits of Real-Time Inventory Tracking
Without real-time inventory tracking, it can be difficult to keep track of inventory levels. Here are a few advantages of managing real-time inventory tracking:
1. Live Inventory Management
You can simply track inventory at the operations level in real-time. You know the exact quantities of goods being received, ready for sale, and prepared for shipment. From scanning inventory on the warehouse floor to assembling and kitting units, it helps with all.
2. Accurate Reporting
Inventory losses and theft may go unnoticed if the proper technology isn't in place to manage real-time data. Additionally, you risk dealing with additional stockouts and overstocking, which reduce customer satisfaction and hurt profits.
Using technology makes it easier to maintain inventory records, giving you more access to your inventory and teaching you the importance of real-time accurate information on inventory.
3. Maintain Appropriate Stock Levels
Keeping the right levels of inventory is hard because what people want keeps changing. But with real-time inventory data, you can manage and store inventory in each warehouse more easily.
4. Streamline Supply Chain
One of the main advantages of receiving inventory data in real-time is that you can quickly find problem areas in your supply chain and take the needed action. To properly manage your supply chain, real-time inventory data offers insights into how long goods take to get from the producer to your warehouses.
Read Also: How to Measure Inventory Accuracy?
Real-Time Inventory Management Challenges
In the following sections, we have listed the challenges of real-time inventory management:
1. Manually Tracking Stock Levels
Using just spreadsheets, paper, or basic apps won't work well for real-time inventory management. They make you waste time and money, and mistakes can easily happen.
For proper real-time inventory management, everything needs to be connected. Each step should be linked with the supply chain management when you order and sell goods. If this doesn't happen, you might take orders for goods you don't have or have too much stuff you can't sell.
2. Stock Not Being Held Back for Channels
You must consider various purchasing habits, turnover rates, return frequency, shipping speeds, and demand across channels. It helps identify the standard difficulties of inventory management as you expand and add additional sales channels and fulfillment locations. You must adjust your inventory based on what is in your warehouse and what is listed on various sales channels.
3. Lack of Necessary Tools at Warehouse
Buying the same machinery that big warehouses use can be pricey if you handle your inventory and fulfillment process. It may result in mistakes in all procedures involving inventory. Instead, you can use barcode technology, wearable devices, and inventory scanners that automatically update counts throughout the system, costing less money.
4. SKUs Are Combined in Storage
When a brand fulfills orders from small location and wants to save space, avoiding this common mistake is important. A dedicated location should be assigned to each SKU, even if barcoding is already in place, to ensure proper order fulfillment.
Read Also: Methods to Avoid Stock Discrepancy
Real-Time Inventory Management Solutions
Real-time inventory solutions assist brands of all sizes maintain their supply chains in the face of sudden delays or unexpected circumstances. It also helps with steadily rising customer expectations as more brands compete by creating a multichannel retailing strategy.
Inventory management software provides outsourced fulfillment, real-time inventory tracking, and a full range of logistics solutions:
Real-Time Inventory Management and Control Software
Real-time inventory management software is the best tool merchants can use. These systems, which are made to continuously track and manage your inventory at the store or warehouse level, can assist your company in keeping inventory records.
It helps keep track of a low days' sales in inventory ratio and a high inventory turnover ratio and ensures that the goods your customers require are always in stock at all of your locations.
Read Also: What Is Safety Stock and How to Calculate?
Real-Time Inventory Tracking Provides Valuable Insights
Your company will benefit from monitoring your inventory using the real-time inventory management system. For starters, you have a better chance of competing with fulfillment companies at the top of your sector. You'll be better positioned to fulfill delivery commitments, save money, and manage inventory levels.
Stay Ahead With TranZact's Real-Time Inventory Tracking Solutions
Real-time inventory tracking is important for a competitive edge in the fast-paced commercial sector.
TranZact offers innovative real-time inventory tracking solutions to assist Indian SMEs in maintaining their inventory counts. Transform your inventory management and achieve accurate inventory insights by working with TranZact.
FAQs on Real-Time Inventory Tracking
1. How is real-time inventory management accomplished?
On the market, there are several options for inventory management, ranging from straightforward inventory apps to ERP inventory systems that offer real-time inventory tracking solutions. Another solution is using software offering fulfillment technology that provides real-time inventory tracking across distribution channels.
2. Why is real-time inventory management crucial?
Real-time inventory data access offers crucial insights into demand and the effectiveness of the product and sales channels. In addition, it helps in planning when to order new items, making your whole production and selling process smoother.
3. What's the most effective technique to manage inventory?
Giving up on spreadsheets and using an inventory management software that automatically records real-time inventory data is the best way to track your inventory.
4. Can staff use mobile devices to get real-time inventory information?
Yes. Thanks to mobile-friendly interfaces, staff members can access inventory data on the go, making stock tracking and management more effective.
5. Is there reporting and analytics functionality in the real-time inventory system?
Yes, these systems regularly offer thorough analysis and reports, allowing firms to make fact-based choices for inventory management.
6. Is training necessary to efficiently operate the real-time multi-store inventory system?
Yes, even though the system is user-friendly, proper training makes sure that workers can make the most of it.
