Do you run a retail store, warehouse, manufacturing business, restaurant, pharmacy, or technology firm? If yes, then there’s a big chance that you need to perform inventory and asset counts to better manage your operations.
Well, you have a couple of options when it comes to doing inventory counts in your organization today. You can either do it yourself (DIY) or consider hiring a reliable inventory count firm (Asset and Inventory Consulting Firm). Before you go ahead doing it yourself, it’s important to understand the different challenges associated with this type of count. Getting familiar with these challenges will either help you get better prepared or see reasons to hire professional service providers, such as OFS Inventory.
1. Technological Challenges
For you to ensure accuracy and efficiency in inventory management, you certainly need the right technological tools. For instance, manual tools such as spreadsheets are crucial to keep track of inventory counts. Other key tools needed for this operation include:
- Barcode systems—to scan and record inventory items quickly.
- RFID solutions—RFID systems, such as tags and readers, are also essential to easily track inventory and speed up inventory counting, respectively.
- Other essentials include inventory management software, such as ERP systems, mobile apps, cloud-based solutions, and IoT devices.
That said, before you consider doing the inventory counting yourself, the question is—do you have these essential technological tools in place? Do you have suitable RFID solutions? Do you have the necessary cloud-based solutions and inventory management systems? Are the technological tools and systems up to date? If not, hiring a professional warehouse inventory counting service provider, such as OFS Inventory may be crucial to the success of your inventory counts.
2. Inconsistent Auditing Practices
For you to get the best results out of your assets and inventory auditing, you certainly need to work with defined criteria. With different criteria, the possibility of having different results is high. A good example is when you use physical on-site inventory counting services and a cycle count strategy.
The bottom line is that using inconsistent auditing practices will surely bring about inaccurate and inconsistent results. To avoid this, hiring a professional inventory and asset counts service provider may be beneficial. These professional inventory counting and consulting providers, such as OFS Inventory, have a clearly laid out procedure in place for the auditing process. They understand exactly how to choose the right & consistent strategy to carry out the counting operation.
3. Inaccurate Results
Inaccurate inventory and asset counts are by far the biggest challenges that businesses encounter today. Before you go ahead to do it yourself, it’s essential to understand the different factors that cause inaccurate counting results:
- Human errors during manual data entry or miscount can lead to inaccurate inventory counts.
- Using poor or outdated inventory management systems can also lead to inaccurate results.
- Lack of automation and strong reliance on manual processes can lead to inaccuracy when doing inventory counting. Most professional firms understand this—which explains why they often use suitable RFID solutions.
- Other factors that result in inaccurate counting results include inconsistent practices, environmental factors, stick movement without recording, supplier errors, technological failures, etc.
Due to the aforementioned factors, it’s usually advisable to work with professionals. Experts at OFS Inventory understand the importance of achieving the best counting results. As such, they often do their due diligence before going ahead with the counting.
You can visit OFS Inventory today to better understand why hiring a professional inventory counting and consulting provider is worth it today.