Whats is Inventory Optimization and the Key Factors of Inventory Optimization?

Inventory optimization is the process of managing a business’s inventory levels in such a way as to ensure the greatest possible production while minimizing costs. The key factors of inventory optimization are reducing stock-taking and ordering intervals, using variable order quantities, and using automation to improve accuracy and timeliness of inventory management. Inventory optimization helps to meet customer demand while maintaining a low cost of goods sold. To optimize inventory, businesses must also consider purchasing behavior, and production scheduling. Understanding these key factors can help businesses reduce costs and boost efficiency. In short, it assists companies in determining the precise quantity of stock-keeping units to purchase, allowing them to have it readily accessible for rapid order fulfillment, and reducing surplus inventory that becomes outdated over time.

Advantages of Inventory Optimisation

Inventory optimization lowers the costs of owning, storing, and managing an organization's inventory, especially when it comes to warehouse and overhead expenditures. Shipping prices are growing in tandem with rising fuel costs. Taxes and rentals may eat up a large amount of a company's income.

Inventory optimization also assists in determining the precise quantity of inventory. While predicted demand is fulfilled, expenses are reduced, and the store has more control over what and when new inventory is purchased. Inventory purchases that are forecasted and planned ahead of time give a large buffer against shipping and sourcing issues. It also results in a high-performing inventory with the highest financial turnover potential, ensuring a continual supply of revenue for enterprises.

The goal of every retail firm is to build an ever-growing base of satisfied and returning consumers who are the lifeblood of the company. Other elements of the company may be streamlined and geared toward prompt order fulfillment with an effective inventory management system, which promotes customer happiness. Long-established supply systems may undermine bedrock brands in unpredictably volatile times. In uncertain economic times, inventory optimization is a safety net. Simply put, inventory optimization

Key factors of Inventory optimization

Forecasting product demand: Inventory optimization requires accurate forecasting of inventory quantities to stock for the upcoming selling cycle. Companies should use sales statistics, inputs from a sales team or on-the-ground staff, and prior year's supply and demand data when calculating ideal numbers.

Companies should be aware of any changes in trends or technical breakthroughs that might make a product outdated in order to optimize. Stay away from unsaleable inventories and capital losses. Machine learning may help in a variety of ways, from quick analyses of past year's data to forecasting current sales volume.

Seasonality is another factor to consider. A product that sells exclusively during the summer, such as sunscreen, cannot be anticipated based on demand from the previous quarter. New product releases further complicate demand forecasting; a product that was introduced a year ago cannot be projected using demand from the previous year.

Finally, although campaigns and promotions are effective marketing tools, they may be a pain for planners and buyers. Although it may be clear that campaigns must be planned, this is not always done correctly, and the campaign as a whole may fail.

Inventory policy: An inventory policy guarantees that personnel correctly identify and mark the most critical cash-generating stock-keeping units. In essence, an inventory policy is a planning instrument that maintains track of inventory goods that are critical to the company or manufacturing process.

Standard techniques such as ABC or XYZ analysis must be followed to get the best results:

ABC analysis aids in inventory classification by "consumption value." It is the entire cost of an item used over a certain period of time, generally measured annually.

The "A" sections have the greatest consumption value, followed by B (middle), and finally C (lowest).

Finally, it makes little difference whether you have the exact appropriate number of each thing if you keep them in the incorrect locations. If you have many warehouses, you must optimize your inventory so that it is dispersed in the proper quantity at the right time and place across all of them. And if there isn't enough demand for an item in one location but there is enough worldwide, you'll need to locate the correct warehouse to keep it in so you can send it out as swiftly and cost-effectively as feasible.

Also, when categorizing inventory products based on demand fluctuation and how accurately future demands may be projected, XYZ analysis comes in help.

The X components with the least volatility in demand may be forecasted with the greatest accuracy. The Pareto Principle is also at work here. The X pieces make up the most of the inventory value, but just a small portion of the inventory stock. The Z components, on the other hand, make up the largest amount of inventory stock and so have the lowest inventory value range.

Stock replenishment: Stock replenishing is where reorder points and order amounts are calculated and converted into real orders. Few of these things to keep care of in order to get the most out of your purchases are;

Reliability of the supplier: Stock availability and service levels are heavily influenced by supplier wait times. You'll need to know not just the lead periods for your various goods, but also the opening hours and manufacturing cycles. Many Chinese manufacturers, for example, shut down production entirely for the Chinese New Year, surprising many western distributors. Another typical issue is that certain items have lengthy lead periods. If one of your fast-moving commodities has an unusually lengthy lead time and your consumers demand quick delivery, you might find yourself in serious danger if you didn't buy enough in advance.

In Transit Goods: When making an order for an item, knowing what you have in stock isn't enough to estimate the order amount. You must also be aware of what is in transit and on its way into your warehouses from your vendors. Although this may seem to be self-evident, most ERPs and other systems do not have this information readily accessible.

Accounting for Uncertainties in Product Supply and Demand: Customers may no longer be asked to wait for an item that is out of stock by suppliers or vendors. Businesses are placed on an equal footing with aggregator websites and eCommerce marketplaces, and a company's inability to provide becomes a competitive advantage for another.

Customers may leave small-to-medium firms if they are unable to stock or refill at the same pace as bigger companies with more extensive supply networks. As a result, maintaining a network of dependable suppliers, as well as backup mechanisms for procuring stock-keeping equipment, is critical. Keeping track of supplier lead times, delivery trends, and schedules will help you manage client item availability.

Fully automated system: One of the best steps small-to-medium enterprises can do to level the playing field versus bigger rivals is to switch to automated inventory management (rather using obsolete systems like Excel). Manual inventory management might result in small to major mistakes. Delays or bad service ratings might lead to a huge volume of unsaleable inventory and frozen cash. Automating and updating procedures may help traditional merchants, e-tailers, and eCommerce practitioners alike.The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way conventional shops do business. Innovative technology, such as smart shelves, improves business results in the inventory management and inventory optimization industries. These systems, for example, give real-time sales data and warnings when stock-keeping units begin to dip below the reorder threshold. Overstocking and shortages are avoided thanks to the elimination of manual mistakes and the use of smart technologies. Inventory optimization ensures consistent cash flow, prevents surplus inventory, and reduces storage and maintenance expenses.

Nuport Inventory Management system

All of these advantages can be ensured for your company by the use of correct software for inventory optimization . Nuport’s inventory optimization software offers you an integrated and conventional solution for the inventory management of your company. With the aid of the professional facilities provided by Nuport's inventory optimization system, your enterprise can reach its maximum potential. Nuport's software is intended to provide your company the increase in performance it needs to gain a competitive edge. To ensure the betterment of your company’s growth and bottomline, schedule for a demo today!