Inventory

[KristineS]

The company for which I work is in the process of building a brand spanking new customized inventory system for our companies. It has been a very long and involved process. Our current inventory system is a hodge podge of programs and spread sheets and is probably very inefficient. The new system will be state of the art.

How do you handle inventory in your business. Do you have a computer program that tracks inventory? Do you use bar codes? Is you inventory on an Excel spreadsheet that you update by hand?

[Blessed]

I'm so glad I don't have to maintain an inventory... those are nightmarish no matter how you track them.

Although I have seen some pretty neat programs in the past!

[Steve B]

I look at the shelves on my truck - then check the shelves in my garage. If I don't have enough inventory to get me through the week I order more. I just have a very simple business - so no system is necessary.

[Leatherneck]

I have a collection of various left over material from jobs that i can reuse on other jobs sooner or later to turn into cash. Even though I have paid for it well in advance some times it feels good too turn it back into profit. I have several styles of aluminum fence sections and post that sell for a few bucks. It is nice too have them on hand, because it takes a few days too have a section sent UPS. if one is damaged, and that can delay me from completing the job. I usually always have sections of chainlink pipe of different diameters on had along with wire and different fittings used in chain link. It is nice too have extra inventory also, because it saves a fairly long ride too the supplier too pick up a few items you might run short of on a specific job.

[orion_joel]

My accounting program has basic inventory which is basically if you put in a purchase for an inventoried item it adds the number on then when you invoice that item it takes one away. small business basic system, works well for me, until i have to try and remember what product code i purchased something under a year ago, lol.

One company i used to work for (had very large 5000sqm+ warehouse) had a system that alloted every shelve location (about the size of a pallet) in the warehouse a code, they went in alpha/numerical order, so you could easily find your way to where you had to go. Everyone in there pretty much had a wireless handheld scanner and the backend system would tell the location of the stock items on the order you had to pick. The backend would have been a very large and very elaborate database system, but the front end was so easy to use.

[pete]

Some systems as Joel described are also zoned where order-pickers only work a specified area and each area has a dedicated printer for pick-tickets with items just in that zone. This is common in large, high volume distribution centers and the buyer will often have a number of pick tickets or packing lists with just several items on each page.
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[orion_joel]

Yes as pete described this was sort of what the system i worked with was, it did have specific area's, and as such a customer could order 10 products and may have 3 or 4 from 3 different area's. While it was possible to overlap an order onto one invoice for multple area's it caused more problems then time saved, so mostly it then become three different orders.

[Evan]

I don't deal with inventory, luckily. So that's not a worry.

As Steve B noted, for small businesses, just taking a physical look can be all you need when you have a standardized product. But if you had a physical location and kept some inventory in the back, then perhaps a more detailed inventory system would be needed. But no need to make it more complicated than it is for the business you do have.