Inventory Management is a very vital step in the supply chain network, it refers to tracking the inventory levels, acquisition, or transport of items or sales. It can also be used in the manufacturing industry to create work orders, bills of material, and other manufacturing-related documents. All the inventory changes are recorded for maintenance, convenience, or upkeep. A well-managed inventory is one of the critical steps in the successful and smooth running of a business operation, however, manual maintenance of the inventory can be quite a cumbersome process and present the risk of human errors.
Companies use inventory management software to avoid overproduction and downtime. It is a software tool for organizing inventory data that was previously usually stored in paper form or in spreadsheets. In its modern form, inventory management is almost inseparable from the corresponding software.
Asset inventory management is an effective way to protect and track a company’s property and projects. Organizations use this process because they can reap benefits such as:
Improved Organization
Asset inventory management’s priority is tracking the location of assets and any maintenance they may require. This helps improve the company’s organization as it allows employees to find the assets they need quickly. Asset inventory management is also helpful for accounting because it organizes the information that finance department employees use to create reports about a company’s finances. An adequate asset inventory records the cost of each item and measures the depreciation of the item over a period of time.
Secured Assets
Asset management also helps companies ensure that they can protect every asset—tangible or intangible—from theft or damage. Asset inventory management also ensures that the company adheres to the laws and regulations regarding each item. For example, ownership of certain software or hardware may require the company to obtain a license, which may reveal this type of control.
Ability to assess the value of assets
Asset Inventory Management helps companies calculate the value of their assets as it tracks the life cycle of an asset and maintains up-to-date records of its previous use. Since an asset devalues its value, keeping track of when employees use an item is useful. Asset valuation is an important task that can also accurately determine the value of your company and its financial position to shareholders.
Proper advice on future investments
Understanding the value and quantity of assets helps a company’s management staff make sound investment decisions, such as buying new equipment or spending money on innovation. For example, asset inventory management can quantify how often employees use an item or how rarely professionals use an asset. Similarly, if every department in a company uses an asset like a printer, management can be confident that investing in additional printers will positively impact their company’s performance.
Savings
A company’s inventory represents one of the most significant investments, along with its staff and location. Inventory management software helps companies cut costs by minimizing unnecessary parts and products in stock. It also helps companies keep lost sales to a minimum by having enough inventory to meet demand.
Organization of the warehouse
Inventory management software can help distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers optimize their warehouse organization. If some items are often sold together or are more popular, they can be grouped or placed near a delivery location to speed up the collection process.
Key Features:
Asset Tracking
When a product is in stock , it can be tracked using a barcode and/or other tracking criteria such as a serial number, batch number, or version number. Currently, inventory management software often uses barcodes, radio frequency identification (RFID), and/or wireless tracking technology.
Secured Assets
Asset management also helps companies ensure that they can protect every asset—tangible or intangible—from theft or damage. Asset inventory management also ensures that the company adheres to the laws and regulations regarding each item. For example, ownership of certain software or hardware may require the company to obtain a license, which may reveal this type of control.
Identification of the product
Barcodes are often a means of entering product and order data into inventory management software. A barcode reader is used to read barcodes and view information about the products they represent. The popularity of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless product identification methods is also growing.
Modern inventory programs can use QR codes or NFC tags to identify inventory items and smartphones as scanners. This method provides companies with the ability to track inventory through barcode scanning without having to purchase expensive scanning equipment.
Service management
Companies that are primarily service-oriented rather than product-oriented can use inventory management software to track the cost of materials they use to provide services, such as cleaning products. Thus, they can attach prices to their services that reflect the total cost of performing them.
Maintenance Schedule
The maintenance scheduling feature allows you to schedule maintenance for equipment such as machinery and equipment. Establishing a maintenance schedule can improve your company’s productivity by having assets ready for use or receiving maintenance when unavailable. A feature that allows you to schedule and track asset maintenance can also help in an emergency if an asset needs to be repaired while in use. Maintenance personnel may be working on the asset, while employees who were using the asset may temporarily switch to another task.
Object Reports
The reporting function is also essential as it is the primary purpose of asset inventory management. It’s most helpful if the software allows you to select the data you want to report, such as performance and asset values. The reporting feature can also provide automatic updates to your assets, which reduces the burden on your asset management team.
Cloud storage
If the asset management software contains a cloud computing system, it may be able to work and store data online on a remote server. This can allow your software to be more compatible with your company’s processes, as employees won’t need new cloud hardware. Software that includes a cloud computing system is also more accessible and allows employees to access the asset inventory management system from anywhere with an Internet connection.
System Setup
It may also be helpful to have your asset management software have a customization feature. This allows company-specific processes to be loaded into the operating system of the software. Customization can also help ensure that the software is compatible with the systems and equipment the company already uses.