In the last post, we talked about the top 10 benefits of having inventory solutions for your business. But what happens if you don’t have one? This week’s infographic is exactly that: “Top 10 Consequences of Not Having Inventory Management”
1. Cost Factor: If there is no proper management, you have little to no visibility of your inventory. Without details about your stock, its quantity and quality, you will spend money on items that are not profitable for your business and incur expenses.
2. Impossible to Track Inventory: Without access to real time information, it becomes difficult to track how or where your products move. Meaning theft, obsolete items, late delivery can become common.
3. Inventory Balance: Your inventory will probably not balance easily. This can translate into shortage of important products or overstocking of not so important ones. However, you can avoid such cases with proper tools.
4. Time Consuming: Your human capital will spend more time on managing smaller tasks. Creating reports, updating inventory and creating labels are examples of some things that your system should do instead.
5. Conflicting Vendor-Customer Relations: If your customers have to spend a long time to ensure that you fulfill their orders correctly, they will be unhappy. Moreover, late or incorrect deliveries can spoil your working relationships.
6. Employee Productivity: Doing redundant tasks over and over can lead to employee inefficiency. In fact, if you automate such actions, you save both their time and your money in the longer run.
7. Ineffective Decision Making: Another major consequence of not having inventory management is lack of data. Data and analytics are key to decision making in any business. Without insights into your inventory levels and usage, making the right decisions is not easy.
8. Warehouse Organization: An inventory management system can even assist you in managing your warehouse. If you don’t have one, you lose flexibility and your facility ends up being difficult to work in.
9. Lead Times and Stock-outs: Without proper tracking or knowing when you require stock, lead times increase and your orders get delayed. Customers become unhappy which is a disaster for any business.
10. Delays in Shipping and Delivery: An increase in lead time means shipping and delivery delays. This can also occur if you don’t know when to replenish your goods.
In conclusion, consequences of not having inventory management can be quite impactful for a company. You are unable to track goods, optimize your inventory and attain visibility across your supply chain. Having a system allows you to achieve all that along with saving money and time.
