3 Costly Inventory Analysis Mistakes Made by Distributors

1. 3 Costly Inventory Analysis Mistakes Made by Distributors M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

2. 3 Costly Inventory Analysis Mistakes Made by Distributors As we all know, distributors are the sole of any business model. No matter how much inventory we produce, we need to have a good and efficient distributor to get it to the right set of customers on time. Our business revenue majorly depends on the set of distributors, who picks and delivers products to our customers on time, which actually gives us a good brand name in the market. Inventory being the bread and butter of the distribution sector, some common mistakes done during inventory analysis and management can ruin the whole distributor business model. Inventory analysis and tracking have different aspects to consider while maintaining a company’s inventory like the no. of the inventory needed for customer demand supply cycle, inventory location, volume of safety stock and more. Improper inventory management can lead to an increase in stock storage cost, capital crunch, disruption of the supply chain, etc. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

3. What is Inventory Analysis? Inventory analysis is the understanding of inventory trends to determine the optimum amount to keep in hand. Traditionally, this has been done by balancing the costs of ordered stocks and current inventory in hand. A regular Inventory Analysis is vital to have a better Inventory Control over our warehouse stocks and final products. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

4. Benefits of Inventory Analysis In today’s digital age, distributors use efficient inventory management software like SalesBabuCRM, which has varied online features and technology to track and manage our inventory. Also, easy to use features in the software accelerates the learning curve for the employees, which helps to automate many manual jobs in stock maintenance process. Some of the benefits of these inventory analysis methods are :- • Improved utilization of the company’s capital and better ROI. • Automation of menial jobs. • Less human error and inventory lost. • Establishing a proper warehouse layout. • Implementation of proper authorization to avoid theft. • Proper management and rotation of dormant inventory items. • Proactive identification of possible opportunities or losses. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

5. Methods of Inventory Analysis ABC Analysis This Analysis is also known as Always Better Control process. It is a stock management process where inventory items are classified into three categories namely: A, B, and C. Here is how ABC Analysis looks like: • A: 10% of total inventories contributing towards 70% of total consumption value or the most expensive inventory in the stock, hence these are dealt with utmost care. • B: 20% of total stock count, which is about 20% of the total consumption value. As the cost of these inventories is less than A, hence control level is also moderate for this category. • C: 70% of total inventories, which account for only 10% of the total consumption value. These inventories require lesser investments so the control level is minimum. This ABC analysis is very useful to categories the stock and in turn saves a lot of maintenance cost on the inventory. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

6. Methods of Inventory Analysis continues... JIT Analysis In Just in Time method of inventory control, warehouses will only have the exact amount of inventory which is needed during the production process. With minimum or no excess inventory in hand, the company saves a lot of cost on storage and stock insurance. This model seems to be a little risky as the new inventory is ordered when old is close to replenishment and may lead to out of stock situation due to any delay in stock delivery. This method needs very efficient and on time planning to receive stock at appropriate time. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

7. Methods of Inventory Analysis continues... VED Analysis VED is also known as Vital Essential and Desirable inventory analysis. This analysis classifies inventory according to the relative importance of certain items in the production cycle like in spare parts, raw material and others. This analysis, classify items into three categories which are: • Vital – inventory that consistently needs to be kept in stock as these are vital for production. • Essential – keeping a minimum stock of this inventory is enough as it might slow down the production cycle. • Desirable – operations can run with or without these items and are optional or easily replaceable. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

8. Methods of Inventory Analysis continues... Minimum Safety Stocks The minimum safety stock is the level of extra inventory which an organization maintains to avoid stock-out situation in cases of unseen scenarios. This is the minimum stock level which is kept in stock and used in case the new order is not received before the existing spare parts, raw materials and other existing stock is over. FSN analysis This method of inventory analysis and control is very useful for controlling obsolescence. This analysis classifies stocks based on quantity, the rate of consumption and frequency of issues and uses. Here is the basic depiction of FSN Analysis: • Fast Moving (F) – Items that are frequently used and reordered quickly based on customer demands. • Slow Moving (S) – Items that are used less for a certain period and are periodically reordered. • Non-Moving (N) – Items that are not used for more than a certain duration and are reordered as per the demand. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

9. Mistakes made by Distributors during Inventory Analysis Inventory Mistake #1:Too Much Inventory Earlier, many traditional business models use to assume that more inventory is more sales and more revenue. On the contrary, if we see closely, more inventory means more stocks to maintain, more storage cost, more wastage due to perishable and out of demand stocks, more labour cost and more window for theft and shipment losses. In the past few years, companies have understood the requirement of efficient demand forecasting methods to maintain the right amount of inventory to accommodate demand without landing into out of stock situation. This can easily be achieved by following ABC or minimum safety stock analysis and keeping only the required or minimum amount of required inventory for the production. As distributors, we should have a clear understanding of the fact that Inventory holding costs are one of the largest expenses for the business, and should constantly be minimized by using an efficient inventory management and analysis tool. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

10. Mistakes made by Distributors during Inventory Analysis continues... Inventory Mistake #2:Improper Inventory auditing Traditionally, inventory in the warehouses were checked once a year to save on manpower and cost incurred during auditing. But in today’s era of technology and fast changing market requirement yearly audit is quite inefficient and cost incurring affair. One year is a long time to keep an account of inventory wastage and pressing issues occurring on day to day basis like stock shrinkage or poor upkeep of perishable goods. These stock issues cost a lot of money to the organisation on a daily basis which, if not taken care of immediately may cost a huge cause of loss for business at the end of a financial year. The first steps to avoid such auditing issues is to implement an efficient online inventory management system which not only keeps track of stocks in regular basis but also help in analysing any pressing issue which has been bothering the stock maintenance for a period of time. Metrics and analysis in an online inventory management system, helps to organise our inventory by the process of cycle counting. These systematic and periodic checking of stock helps to better maintain our inventory and avoid any major loss for the company. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

11. Mistakes made by Distributors during Inventory Analysis continues... Inventory Mistake #3:Failing to Automate “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” -Bill Gates As rightly said, without automation, you can’t create an organised system for managing your stocks across locations and departments, and without an efficient inventory management system, it’s impossible to improve your business revenue. Hence migrating to an automated online inventory management system is the bottom line of a successful business model. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

12. Conclusion Inventory management is an essential part of every business but being aware of the common mistakes that others have made is the first step in avoiding them, followed by implementing changes to inventory system by tactically ordering, tracking, and maintaining your business model. The good news is, we have efficient cloud based inventory management system like SalesBabuCRM which can provide a one stop solution for all these inventory management requirements. M: +91 9611 171 345 Email: sales@salesbabu.com

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