Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Stock management

Maintaining the best level of stock is not easy. It is a balancing act.
The competing needs are:
- Minimize the investment in stock
- Be able to satisfy customer needs 100% of the time
- Never have stock that cannot be sold or used within a determined time-frame
There is no more critical part of a business than the inventory area.
There are various styles of stock management with probably the most drastic being JIT (Just in Time).
Often seen in the automotive industry, this is great when everybody works to the “plan”. But this can leave a business up for ransom if there is a single hiccup in your suppliers’ supply chain. Be very wary of this style.
If your components or raw materials can be purchased on a one day (or less) lead time, inventory control is not critical compared with a business that imports parts.
All accounting systems give you a stock/inventory module (sometimes optional).Check here new inventory management software

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