When we discuss inventory management, we aren’t just referring to finished goods. It also includes the supply of raw materials or semi-finished items. Inventory management involves planning and applying a strategy to boost profitability. Effective inventory management means having the right amount at the right time. If the supply is too low, we face stockouts, which can disrupt production. Conversely, having too much stock is costly and risks depreciation. Therefore, good inventory management is about achieving the right balance to maximize profits while reducing costs. Forecasting and planning are useful tools for effective inventory management.
How To Find This Balance of Optimal Stock
Good inventory management system should allow the company to have the necessary resources to produce and the finished products available to fulfill all of its orders. It should also minimize storage costs. Indeed, the stock is very expensive! Between the cost of acquisition, the cost of storage (rental of premises, storage costs, etc.) and the cost of devaluation, it is clear that the company has no interest in storing a surplus in its premises.
“Just In Time” For Better Stock Management
There are several methods for optimizing inventory management. Among the methods that guarantee a reduction in costs is the just-in-time method. This method consists of eliminating all the hazards that could cause waste throughout the operating process. This regulation of the stock allows the company to gain competitiveness since it reviews all the causes of inefficiency and offers a response to demand just at the moment. In other words, it is a question of producing only the quantity. which will be sold and the company therefore goes through the elimination of what is called “zero stock.
Digitization At The Heart Of Warehouse Performance
While the subject of digitization is not new, some warehouses have been equipped with WMS since the end of the 1980s, the new opportunities offered to logistics by the acceleration of computer computing times and the generalization of digital uses in the company are numerous. Companies can thus more easily adapt their organization to changes in the market and to the expectations of their customers.
The Smart Warehouse
First, an intelligent warehouse must be able to adjust its operation in real time to the type of orders to be processed. It must in particular optimize fluctuating flows from one day to another or even within a day. Fixed configurations should therefore be banned. This is all the more true when the company has limited visibility on the development of its activity in the medium term. It is then a question of ensuring not to design a production tool that compromises its development for lack of sufficient flexibility.
Warehouse Of The Future: What Will It Look Like?
As new needs appear regularly, warehouses must perpetually reinvent themselves. How can they therefore evolve to fulfill orders that have become urgent and unitary leading to increasingly limited opportunities for massification? Are we moving towards total mechanization? What will be the place of humans there? What can new technologies offer? These are all themes that we were able to discuss with the contributors to this case.