Inventory and Asset Management: An Overview

Manufacturing and trading companies' requirements to balance supply and demand can be challenging due to forecast inaccuracies, evolving trends, and changing customer preferences. They need supply chains with efficient inventory and asset management practices to respond to market dynamics with agility at minimal costs. To augment their efforts, manufacturers and traders need asset and inventory management solutions to monitor goods with accurate data for better customer satisfaction.

This blog post highlights the importance of inventory and asset management in the supply chain. 

Benefits of Inventory and Asset Management in Supply Chain

1. Inventory management services reduces shipment delays and other disruptions by providing critical insights into the supply chain processes.

2. Enhances transparency in supply chain processes, decreases inventory write-offs and lowers inventory holding costs.

3. Effective inventory management practices enable organizations to analyze product requirements and prevent shortages.

4. It increases productivity by automating data entry tasks and eliminating human errors.

5. Asset management enables the organization to trace the products accurately in different locations.

6. Brings more efficiency to the supply chain operations by enabling businesses to analyze the assets closely.

7. Businesses can optimize their operations including planning, resourcing, and implementation.

Inventory and Asset Management Processes

Let's closely evaluate the inventory management processes in a typical manufacturing supply chain

1. Material handlers start collecting essential items from the warehouse.

2. They are then sent to the production department. Once production is completed, the manufactured products go through a quality check to meet all the definite parameters.

3. After clearing the quality test, the finished products are shipped to the desired location.

Asset management is about developing, operating, maintaining and upgrading of assets in the most cost-effective way. 

1. The supplier receives a work request and the work order is generated accordingly. 

2. It is then followed by a proper task planning to carry out the process.

3. The resource planning and forecasting activities are done after the supplier receives a material request.

4. Finally, a report is sent to the customer regarding the work order update and closeout.

To Read More: Benefits of Using Machine Learning in Supply Chain

How Asset and Inventory Management Solutions Overcome Supply Chain Challenges

• Resource Monitoring

The unavailability of adequate resources is a common challenge faced by large and medium-sized businesses. Using erp inventory management system, organizations can monitor their resources closely and plan accordingly.

• Enhances Accuracy

Every business needs to maintain their information accurately to avoid data loss and synchronization issues. Inventory and asset management solutions enable businesses to maintain data consistency which can be processed for planning further activities. Capturing sales order number, item SKU and packing slip number with proper documentation enhances accuracy and transparency in business operations.

• Stock review

The stock review methodology involves regular inventory analysis versus estimated future needs. It can be done manually as well as automatically to avoid disruptions in production and manufacturing.

• Automates Tasks and Track Assets

Asset management solutions ensure compliance with maintenance schedules and capture the data automatically to provide critical insights on asset information. RFID, GPS, and smart tags enable businesses to track assets accurately by eliminating the manual task.

Concluding Thoughts

Reliable inventory and asset management solutions bring efficiency in supply chain operations by streamlining manufacturing and distribution processes. It enables businesses to monitor the stocks and take critical measures to avoid cascading supply chain challenges. 

We, at Oodles, develop effective inventory and asset management solutions for all sizes and types of manufacturing and trading businesses. We provide end-to-end customized supply chain development services for better planning and execution. Our team develops asset tracking solutions to provide seamless tracking experience across desktop and mobile devices.