Element for a Good Inventory System

The Elements of a Good Inventory System

Every company have inventory problem, every company will require the great system to manage their inventory so it will help you become more productive. But no matter how good you control, you are still fail if you don’t do some very basic things.

You may be able to improve on our recommendations or your enterprise may have to do things differently but if you follow our recommendations you’ll wind up with a pretty good system.

The Critical point of a great Inventory System

• Well Organized Location Names
• Location Labels that are easy to read, and unambiguous
• Unique, Short, and Unmistakable Item Numbers
• Units of Measure
• A Good Starting Count
• Software that tracks all inventory activity
• Good Policies
• Most Important: People who know and follow good policies

I will explain in my next post why these elements are so important.

Vivienne from www.mrp.com.my

Your 5 Year Fantasy

Your 5 Year Fantasy

It's 2013.  You are ____ years old.  In five years it will be 2018 and you will be ____ years old. What do you want to do or be ?

Generate Great Item Code

Great Item Code will Make Your Life Much Easier!

Tips on Creating Item Number Schemes

• Unless you are forced to do so by something out of your control, never start an item number with a zero. Just trust us on this.
• Avoid using letters that can be confused with numbers.  The main culprits are O,I, and L. 
• DO NOT use a manufacturer's serial number or part number for your part number. These numbers are often too long and cryptic. Plus, if you switch suppliers, or the manufacturer changes their number it becomes meaningless to your organization. 
• Keep item numbers short - but not so short that they could be mistaken for other numbers (i.e. quantities). 4 - 8 characters will suffice for most organizations.
• Do not load item numbers with meaning - do not try to use the item number to describe your product. This will only make your numbers longer, and more complicated. Save this information for the item description.
• Consider using a few letters. Letters will help further distinguish your item numbers from other numbers, and they will greatly increase the number of possible item numbers you can have while keeping the overall item number length as short as possible.
• Using a few letters from the beginning of your item description at the beginning of your part numbers will make it much easier to look up items in pick lists. For example, if you were creating an item number for “Sauce, Chocolate” you might create the number “SAU101” , “Sauce, Caramel” “SAU102” etc...
• Avoid loading inventory item descriptions with more information than absolutely necessary. Information such as vendor names, manufacturer, country of origin, expiration dates, and so on belongs in the "item details", or" transaction details", areas where it can be used more effectively.
• Do not use characters that might confuse people or software. For example, using a comma in your item number might make it look like a quantity or price. Using a "/" can result in Excel formatting your part number as a date. Symbols such as "<", ">", and "*" can have unintended consequences when moving data between Clearly Inventory and your spreadsheet program. Try to keep your item numbers simple and alpha-numeric where possible.