4 Common Warehouse Issues That Can Be Fixed with Avercast’s Inventory Planning Software

So, you have a company that sells physical goods. That means you have inventory, and it’s most likely stored somewhere. Depending on your size, you’ll have to find somewhere to store your products.

There are close to 20,000 warehouses in North America alone. There’s no doubt that the operations of these warehouses differ in many ways; however, there are multiple struggles commonly seen in most warehouses.

Inventory planning software is the way to address weaknesses found among warehouses.

Today you won’t only look at some of the common challenges found in many warehouses, but you’ll also learn how inventory management software can specifically address these areas.

INACCURACY

Often, warehouse workers go to get a product off the shelves only to discover it isn’t in stock. It’s also common to receive the wrong product when orders are made online and shipped from a warehouse location. This happens for many reasons, such as a lack of insight into what products your consumers are going to want, resulting in an inaccurate storage of product required to meet demand.

Scenarios like these could be easily avoided using inventory forecasting software . Inventory forecasts allow you to keep accurate levels of product on your shelves. This technology will help your business to avoid both stockout and over-stock situations. Having too much or too little inventory are both bad scenarios to find yourself in. Implementing this software will keep your customers happy!

LAYOUT

This issue piggybacks off of the previous one. How’s it possible to have an efficient layout of your warehouse if you don’t even know which products are going to produce extra foot traffic? It can become a messy guessing game.

Inventory management software will help you determine the most effective warehouse layout for your company to operate with.

This is a silly analogy, but bear with me. When I was a freshman in college, I suddenly became responsible for taking care of dishes and kitchen accessories that, in my childhood home, my mom had dealt with for the previous 18 years of my life. I moved into my apartment, and I put cups in bowls on top of plates and shoved them all onto one small shelf. It wasn’t until I started cooking that I saw what kind of access I needed to my dishes, and I realized my dish storage layout was pretty ineffective. I couldn’t quickly grab a plate without moving a bunch of other stuff, and I couldn’t even see the cups half of the time.

All that being said, cooking for myself isn’t that important and therefore, doesn’t merit a lot of stress. Taking a few extra minutes every day to shove my dishes in far enough to slam the cupboard door didn’t have any consequences besides a few minutes of frustration.

In your warehouse however, a comparable situation has the potential to do a lot more damage. Extra minutes spent locating and moving highly demanded products adds up. This will cost you more in labor, which we’ll discuss later on in the article.

Using inventory planning software will give you foresight into which products you need to be able to access quickly and frequently. You’ll be able to create a smoothly running warehouse layout that will, in the end, save you money!

LABOR

From janitor to manager, there are a lot of employees in any given warehouse. It makes sense that you’d want to implement a tool to increase their productivity.

Inventory planning software will enhance your warehouse operations, which will result in your employees carrying out more productive and structured work.

SEASONALITY

There are many elements to the seasonality of demand. These can be predicted or repetitive events. One of the most recent examples is the COVID-19 pandemic. There were many products that became popular for just a short amount of time, and many warehouses weren’t prepared to meet the sudden spike in demand.

Using inventory planning software, warehouses can be prepared to meet these fluctuating supply chain demands. Anticipating the changes caused by seasonality will allow you to adjust your warehouse layout and labor costs. There are also long-term supply chain elements, like transportation of goods, that will be positively affected.

At Avercast, we have the best inventory planning software for mid-sized and large businesses available!

With over 40 years of supply chain experience, we can confidently assure you that your business will be improved using our software. Not only will you enhance warehouse operations, but your finances will be positively affected as well.

We would love to talk with you about specific ways your company could use our inventory planning software. Call or schedule a demo today, and our experts will reach out to you.