Take Control of Your Physical Inventory Management With the Right Tech

October 22nd 2019 15:00:00 PM

As a manufacturing business, your company runs differently than either a retailer or a distributor. Instead of selling finished goods, you are buying raw materials and putting them through your manufacturing process to convert them into the product line or lines that you sell to your customer base. Inventory isn’t simply a matter of moving goods into your warehouse and then shipping them out when orders are placed, which means you need to have a good inventory management plan to ensure that you keep track of it with the right technology.

Are you on board with updating your inventory management to improve productivity and possibly your bottom line? Let Scanco help by giving us a call at (330) 645-9959 or contact us to set up a personal consultation with one of our Solutions Experts today. 

Know your Manufacturing Inventory Types 

The inventory used in a manufacturing business can be divided into the following categories: raw materials, work in progress (WIP) and finished goods.

 1. Raw Materials 
The raw materials inventory includes all the items used to make finished products. This includes finished products that will be used directly, as well as components that must be altered or extracted by the company before they can be used. 

Raw materials are all the parts used to make a finished product. If your business makes furniture, then your direct raw materials would include the components for the frame (wood, metal, etc.), springs, padding, and fabric or a covering of some type. It would also include nails, screws, and fasteners, along with any decorative buttons or hardware used. All these items are included in the cost of goods the factory produces. For accounting purposes, they would be divided into the cost of goods sold and the ending inventory. 

2. Work in Progress
 This term (WIP) refers to all the unfinished products in your warehouse. It doesn’t include raw materials that are sitting on warehouse shelves or finished products that are ready to be shipped out to customers. Anything that falls in between these two categories fits neatly into the WIP category. 

3. Finished Goods 
Finished goods in your manufacturing facility are products that have been fashioned from raw materials and are ready to be shipped out to fill orders. They aren’t expected to remain in the warehouse over a long time. 

Let Scanco Show You How to Take Control of Your Inventory Management 

When dealing with physical inventory, it’s crucial to keep track of where items are during each step in the process. Scanco can offer you automatic barcode systems that will make this easy and convenient for your team members. Look to Scanco Mobility to work in tandem with Scanco Warehouse to give you a powerful software duo that will make inventory tracking a breeze, with no paper or data entry required! Scanco Mobility allows your team to perform item inquiries as needed to find out exactly how much stock you have of any particular item as needed in real time. 

Better inventory planning adds up to higher sales, which definitely impacts your bottom line. If you’ve had enough of scrambling to find enough raw materials to complete orders or guessing whether you can complete orders on time, then why not consider a better, less stressful solution instead? 

Scanco has the right solutions for manufacturing businesses of all sizes. We will take the time to get to know you and your company so that we can suggest a plan that will be a good fit for your business and its goals. Taking the next step couldn’t be easier: just contact us online or call (330) 645-9959 to arrange a brief, no-obligation appointment with a Solutions Expert today.