Of all the ways to improve your warehouse efficiency, one of the most effective ways to drive change is through real-time inventory control. Real-time inventory control provides for greater transparency throughout your organization. It can be used for both internal and external products to protect your bottom line.

Why Real-Time Inventory Control Works

From the warehouse floor all the way up to the executive offices, real time inventory controls allow managers and employees to see true inventory levels at all times. This allows everyone to make better decisions, including the software that handles dispatching and re-ordering. It also allows for more accurate troubleshooting when it comes to warehouse efficiency issues.

Eliminating Inventory Gaps

Real-time inventory systems track every individual transaction and make adjustments on a continual basis. Eliminating unknown changes in inventory means that you always have a good understanding of how an individual order will affect your total operation. It also gives you more information with which to forecast future needs.

Furthermore, real time inventory systems typically make inventory data equally available to all team members. Instead of having to seek out an inventory specialist or order up a report from a distant office, workers can get the information that they need while they are in a position to act upon it. An increased understanding of how inventory flows can help team members on the ground plan their days with warehouse efficiency in mind.

Minimizing Contacts

With the help of a real time inventory system, your inventory will be updated automatically whenever a product is received or picked. This ultimately reduces the need for further counts and contacts with individual items, saving you time and labor. The fewer fingerprints you have to leave on the items flowing through your doors, the greater warehouse efficiency you will achieve.

Greater Flexibility

In today's global, connected world, perhaps the greatest advantage of real-time inventory management is the ability to adapt quickly. In the past, companies were forced to look at last quarter's data to decipher this season's trends. Today your warehouse can pivot on a dime as new products take off. Again, the transparency you have from top to bottom guarantees that there are enough hands on deck who can be moved to handle any changes in inventory needs minute by minute. Warehouse efficiency as a measure of reactivity to sudden changes goes way up.

Real Time inventory controls make for a more aware and intelligent business all around. Warehouse efficiency ultimately improves because the inventory system performs much of the maintenance on its own, and managers can focus more on utilizing their teams more effectively. It also removes any gray areas in the inventory when there are long periods without an updated count, thereby ensuring that there are never any surprises come picking time.