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Inventory Management

by Bill Brine

When I look at the innocuous bar code on various products in the local supermarket, I never cease to be amazed about the person who invented the technology or thought up the concept. For if truth be told, the humble bar code is one of the biggest leaps taken by mankind in the highly critical world of inventory management. Without the barcode, inventory management would still be lagging behind. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there might not have been a structured field like inventory management at all!

For a long time, I was under the mistaken belief that inventory management was merely a catchphrase to describe the storage activities of any business. But the complex nature of business in the present day and age makes inventory management a highly specialized science that has its own language, terms of frequent use, qualified professionals and even software. You might have heard abut the kind of software associated with inventory management. It is better known as enterprise resource planning software (or ERP).

I first came across inventory management in the true sense of the term when I visited the warehouse of an acquaintance, who manufactured various automobile parts for some bigger car manufacturers. Such people, who manufacture parts of bigger orders, are known as Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Anyways, this OEM made gearboxes for a large car company. Make may not be the right term as what he did was to assemble the gearboxes, made from various parts that various other companies supplied him with. This is where I got to see inventory management at work. Since he relied on regular supply from five different vendors, this person needed similar deliveries, at similar times from all five of the suppliers to make (or rather, assemble) his gearboxes. Even if one of his suppliers fell behind on the schedule, his assembly could not be completed. Hence, he had installed a highly efficient inventory management tool that kept track of his rate of supplies and calculated how many pieces of the gearbox he could assemble. This tight control on his inventory management process made him efficient, and capable of delivering to the major car manufacturer right on schedule.

But inventory management is about a whole lot more than just efficiently building on demand. In supermarkets, you need inventory management to keep track not just of sales, but also of which items are in demand and need to be replenished. In the kitchens of large hotels, inventory management can streamline the effective procurement of fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry products to equip the kitchen to function effectively. Even in the textiles business, effective inventory management can provide hassle-free sourcing of various parts like buttons and zippers on time, to ensure completion of the stitching activities to facilitate delivery.

Without effective inventory management, may industries would be in total chaos. People reliant on one part of the supply chain mechanism in order to make additional parts or to take further action would be unable to function well. So inventory management can effectively streamline the entire process flow of a business and directly impact productivity...

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About the Author

Bill Brine is a recognized author of diverse articles on a wide range of topics relating to internet marketing and online business. At his website www.brincom.com you will find more free articles, and lots of useful tools, advice and services which will assist you in building a successful and profitable online business. Personal consultation and coaching is also available.

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