Best Tools for Inventory Management 2024

Small enterprises must use various strategies and resources to boost profitability, simplify supply chain management, and enhance order management. Online inventory management tools are crucial for many firms, particularly those in the manufacturing and wholesale industries. Inventory records are the most probable area to computerize a firm, and inventory management is a core component of all ERP and CRM systems.

A “perpetual inventory record” is kept up to date using essential inventory management. Simply put, the system continuously keeps track of the amount on hand and receives reports of inventory movement or transactions. When you keep your finger on the pulse of your ever-changing inventory, you can price many of your items strategically. This visibility proves crucial for many brands, particularly during the holidays.

Hundreds of assets and inventory items may be found on the average factory, warehouse, or shop floor, all of which need to be monitored and maintained. Inadequate equipment location and maintenance can result in unplanned outages, lost productivity, and dramatically higher costs.

What’s the solution?

You can combine barcode labels and asset tags with tool inventory and equipment management software systems to track your equipment and high-value assets and inventory of tools, as well as spare parts to ensure you can maintain your equipment in top operating condition.

You may prevent unplanned business disruptions caused by inadequate maintenance planning or back-ordered components by implementing an efficient asset-tracking system with a robust tool inventory and plant-tracking solution. So, let’s now get to the core of an inventory management system and the best tools to use with it.

Tools used for inventory management

You can keep an eye on the goods you have on hand with the help of tools for inventory management. To help you ensure appropriate inventory management, here are the most crucial tools and techniques used for inventory management:

Cycle Counting

To ensure that the amount of items you have in stock at your shop matches the quantity specified in the inventory management system you use, you can audit a small set of products using cycle counting. You may reduce surplus inventory more successfully if you do an inventory count. To make sure your system accurately represents what you have on the sales floor, stockroom, and warehouse, you must reconcile your inventory if you find any discrepancies.

For efficient inventory planning and control, inventory accuracy is crucial. Unfortunately, you can adequately correct open source inventory management tools with an active and systematic cycle counting strategy.

Barcode Data Collection

The average inventory system relies significantly on accurate reporting. Delays, mistakes, missed transactions, and an excellent workload for the workforce to gather and enter the data are all potential problems with manual reporting.

Automated data gathering, usually accomplished using barcode scanners, significantly increases transaction accuracy and timeliness while reducing the required reporting. There are several opportunities for human mistakes and inaccuracy when reporting manually.

Automate data collecting using a barcode scanning system since accurate data is essential to inventory optimization. The workforce will be relieved of this load, and the company’s inventory data will be far more precise and reliable.

ABC Analysis

To determine which of the listed items are more and less essential, you can practice cycle counting, which you can configure using ABC analysis. The most popular ABC analysis (also known as Pareto analysis) technique involves ranking every inventory item based on its yearly total value (annual “usage” or movement times the unit cost).

According to the famous 80/20 rule, the top 20 percent of products typically account for 80 percent of the year’s total value via the warehouse. The value of the following thirty percent (B goods) is fifteen percent, and the remaining fifty percent (C items) is five percent of the yearly deal.

Integrated Planning and Execution

Incorporate a cloud-based inventory control system into the supply chain procedures of the business to unify planning and execution. When you use accounting and inventory software, data accuracy, productivity, waste reduction, and carrying costs increase. It is an easy-to-use solution that reduces labor costs by automating many tedious and labor-intensive processes.

One of the most essential characteristics of this management tool is its ability to integrate phones. Integration allows management to update via a mobile app in several places. Productivity will rise as a result at every stage of the supply chain.

Lot Traceability and Tracking

While lot tracking, traceability, and serial number monitoring are optional for every organization, an increasing number of them are gathering this data due to the growing likelihood of product recalls. Basic corporate management procedures and financial control both depend on inventory tracking. However, inventory control, product creation, performance enhancement, and overall corporate success may all work with the help of your primary tools in inventory management and inventory data.

An essential component of any ERP, integrated inventory management systems offer both the fundamental tools and substantial extra features that increase ERP’s usability and better meet larger businesses’ demands.

Tool inventory management software that delivers

With the tools of inventory management software, keeping track of and managing your tool room inventory is simple. Utilizing a sophisticated, user-friendly warehouse management system is an excellent option for maintaining your list correctly. With its point-and-shoot and clicking interface, inventory management techniques and tools keep things easy. To keep your tool room inventory database up to date, a single user needs to interact with a relatively small number of displays.

Online inventory management tools may help you stay organized and track the whereabouts of your tools and equipment, saving you both time and money! Tracking tools in tool rooms, machine shops, warehouse operations, tool cribs, offices, and on projects or job sites is possible using a software’s multiple location tracking features.

Barcodes

The barcode inventory system allows you to see the whereabouts of goods over time when you check the devices out. When it’s time to return your equipment, you can utilize barcode scanners to check it back into your warehouse monitoring system. Accurate inventory control is a crucial tactic for managing supply prices, reorder levels, maintenance, and loss.

You can also use the inventory control software product to increase responsibility significantly. Tools, equipment, folders of files, samples of products, rental goods, and any other objects with rotating ownership or possession may all be efficiently tracked and managed with this program.

An efficient inventory management platform makes it simple to know where you locate your tools and equipment and who is allocated to them. When you check a device out to a project or person, transport it to another location or person, and then check it back into its designated storage space in real time, the inventory management system records it throughout its entire lifespan.

You may successfully and effectively track inventory data using the barcode system. The system includes an audit function to check for errors in inventory counts, manage appropriate storage places, and determine what has broken, lost, or damaged. Versatility in regard to the ‘kind’ of out-of-stock your product is allows for more specificity and, in turn, visibility for your team.

Tracking

You can always keep track of who has your tools and where they are with the help of an inventory management tool tracking software. Most inventory management analysis tools provide a range of barcode labels that may produce on demand or pre-printed. Additionally, a tool tracking program eliminates costly downtime when tools malfunction or must be calibrated by automatically generating a report that appears whenever you turn the tool on.

Best inventory management tools

There is a plethora of different types of inventory management techniques and tools, so choosing the right one for your brand’s needs might be challenging. To assist you in selecting the best inventory management analysis tools for your company, here are the best five tools for inventory management:

Katana

With Katana, businesses can manage every aspect of their stock, including work-in-progress, finished items, and raw materials. You may modify your processes and track inventory movements in real-time with this automated inventory management system. To accommodate the changing process, Katana automatically reallocates goods to open orders simultaneously. To prevent your supplies from running out and put your business to a complete stop, you may also establish reorder points on your completed items and raw materials. Katana helps you put many techniques and tools used for inventory management into practice.

Upserve

Managers and company owners have access to POS systems based on iOS or Android thanks to Upserve, one of the most extraordinary tools used for inventory management solutions for restaurants. With a consolidated platform to oversee their whole organization, this cloud-based inventory management technology helps firms track orders more simply, enhance efficiency, and boost revenues. Additionally, as Upserve is restaurant inventory management software, you can configure access levels so supervisors can safely authorize check modifications and establish automatic tip amounts.

Ordoro

Through automatic dropshipping, omnichannel inventory management, and shipping label production, Ordoro enables you better to manage your fulfillment operations across several sales channels. The fact that Ordoro is free to use initially is by far its most significant benefit. Users may take advantage of a complimentary 30-day onboarding session, and there’s no setup cost or a monthly subscription.

Zoho Inventory

A cloud-based tool called Zoho Inventory assists companies in monitoring and controlling their inventory levels. Zoho Inventory is an excellent option for companies needing assistance managing inventory levels. It provides real-time tracking and notifications to help businesses monitor their stock levels and prevent stockouts. Because Zoho inventory interfaces to additional Zoho products, it offers businesses of all sizes a comprehensive solution.

Monday.com

In addition to being a time and project management application, the well-known Monday.com also has a ton of functions for inventory control. To achieve harmony throughout your whole organization, Monday.com Work OS operates to interface with your existing software platforms. Monday.com can accommodate the requirements of any project, workflow, or procedure, making it appropriate for teams and companies of any size. The best part is that the Work OS offers a no-code/low-code open platform for creating widgets, workflows, connections, and apps, so you can skip being an expert computer user to get everything set up.

Square

Square Point of Sale is a POS system with inventory management capabilities that works with iOS and Android smartphones. This means that even in the event of internet outages, your firm may continue to run. Managers and company owners can handle refunds and discounts with ease thanks to Square POS. It accomplishes this by providing you with inventory management capabilities, such as the ability to record quantities, prices, and product names.

Primary tools in inventory management

Systems for managing inventories offer a plethora of capabilities and resources to support inventory control. Here are five primary inventory tools included in the best inventory management tools:

Reports

Online inventory management tools report capability can be used to produce reports. To generate a report that has all of the relevant information required and data taken from the system’s database. Reports can also be customized, which is essentially a modified version of a regular report that is tailored to a business’s needs to convey the desired information.

Reorder Alerts

Your inventory management software will notify the user(s) when it’s time to place a new order for a certain item using reorder alerts or low inventory notifications. Whenever the product level hits the predefined reorder level, an alarm will sound. This is made possible by the inventory management system’s ability to determine the quantity of each product regardless of its position within a warehouse or other multiple as well as when the level of all products has fallen below a certain threshold.

Dashboards

A dashboard in an inventory management program is a graphical information display that appears on the screen. The dashboard displays various facts and information that have been taken from the system’s database. Users can alter the data displayed on their dashboard panel.

System Integrations

A website platform, accounting software, EDI, and other company management systems are just a few examples of the systems that an inventory management program may interface with. The system integrations required for your firm will vary based on the services it employs.

Barcoding and Mobile Systems

Your company may assign, scan, and handle barcodes with the help of mobile systems and barcoding, which are hardware and software combinations. Barcode scanners & label printers are examples of barcode hardware. The system that controls barcoding and inventory data is called barcode software.

Bottom Line

Efficient inventory management tools are crucial for any business, no matter how big or small. Inventory management helps a business manage its assets and inventory by keeping an accurate track record of sales and production. If you require top-notch management tools to elevate your business, contact us at Pimberly for the best management systems.