Tips for Effective Stock Control and Inventory Management
- Check All Incoming Stocks. Your first focus should be checking on whether the delivered stock is exactly what you ordered from your supplier.
- Store Stocks Wisely. It is easier to place your stock wherever it fits. ...
- Create Clear Labels. Large enterprises make use of radiofrequency identification or RFID to easily track, update, and monitor their stock items and levels.
- Track Expiry Dates. If you offer expired products, then you will be liable for hefty fines if the product gets delivered to the customers.
- Avoid Compounding Problems. When you miss something like keying in important details, you are bound to compound your problems. Let’s face it.
- Set Threshold Stock Levels. Every business has different peak times for sales. Different suppliers also have different lead times.
- Manage Returns Effectively. One of the biggest issue surfaces when businesses don’t document returns well. This does not only create inefficiencies with quality control.
- Monitor Stocks Consistently. You should always keep track of your stock in real-time. In fact, you should have it on a dashboard.
- Keep Priorities in Check. Keeping track of inventories altogether is a time-consuming and exhausting task. So, you should keep your priority straight.
- Use an Automation Solution. Today, it is best that you consider using automated solutions for inventory management and controlling of your stock levels.
- Check All Incoming Stocks. ...
- Store Stocks Wisely. ...
- Create Clear Labels. ...
- Track Expiry Dates. ...
- Avoid Compounding Problems. ...
- Set Threshold Stock Levels. ...
- Manage Returns Effectively. ...
- Monitor Stocks Consistently.
What are the methods of stock control?
Stock control and inventory
- Types of stocks
- How much stock should you keep?
- Stock control methods
- Stock control systems - keeping track manually
- Stock control systems - keeping track using computer software
- Using RFID for inventory control, stock security and quality management
- Stock security
- Control the quality of your stock
- Stock control administration
What are stock control procedures?
monitoring stock levels and dealing with changes in supply and demand, as well as methods of controlling stock movements and reducing the likelihood of theft. Working through this unit There are two sections in the unit Stock control procedures: 1. Monitoring stock levels 2. Controlling stock movements
What are the disadvantages of a stock control system?
Disadvantages Perpetual Inventory System. Besides the above of perpetual inventory system, it suffers from the following limitations: (i) The system is expensive and a small concern cannot afford to implement this system. (ii) The information about actual stock of a particular item on a particular day may not be available, only figures above ...
What does control stock mean?
control stock (noun) shares owned by shareholders who have a controlling interest How to pronounce control stock?

What are 4 stock control methods?
What are the methods of stock control?Just-in-time (JIT)FIFO.Economic Order Quantity.Vendor-managed inventory.Batch control.
How can you improve stock control?
How to Improve Stock ControlAccurate Forecasting. ... Highlight High Sellers. ... Educate Your Staff. ... Regularly Inspect Stock. ... Maintain a Relationship with Your Suppliers. ... Consider Inventory Optimization Tools. ... Make Smart Decisions about Slow Moving and Obsolete Items. ... Resolve Issues on Time.
How do you control stock in and out?
How to reduce stock levels and avoid stock outs.Master your lead times.Automate tasks with inventory management software.Calculate reorder points.Use accurate demand forecasting.Try vendor managed inventory.Implement a Just in Time (JIT) inventory system.Use consignment inventory.Make use of safety stock.More items...
What is effective stock control?
Efficient stock control allows you to have the right amount of stock in the right place at the right time. It ensures that capital is not tied up unnecessarily, and protects production if problems arise with the supply chain.
How is stock handling done?
The steps in the stock handling process include receiving goods, checking them, marking the goods with information, and delivering them. Inventory is one of the most costly parts of operations for many businesses.
What is the 80/20 rule in inventory?
The 80/20 rule states that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts, customers or another unit of measurement. When applied to inventory, the rule suggests that companies earn roughly 80% of their profits from 20% of their products.
What is stock control chart?
Stock-control charts are used to reduce liquidity problems. These include details on stock levels, usage rates, order quantities and delivery times, such as: Minimum stock holding. The minimum level of stocks held by a firm is called the buffer stock level.
What causes stock out?
A stockout can occur for many reasons: You miscount inventory and end up with less stock than you thought you had. Demand surges for a particular item. Suppliers get delayed.
What are the methods of stock control?
To optimize stock control, there are several methods to choose from, including the following: economic order quantity (EOQ), vendor-managed invento...
Why is stock control important?
Stock control is a key part of inventory management that helps to maximize and regulate stock levels to meet customer demand while keeping warehous...
What are stock control systems?
Stock control systems are designed to help ecommerce businesses automatically track stock levels in real time, especially across multiple warehouse...
What is the golden rule of stock control?
Ecommerce businesses should always strive to keep maximum inventory of the best-sellers and reduce the volume of slow-selling stock. Historical ord...
What is stock control?
Stock control, also known as inventory control, is the process of optimizing stock levels in a warehouse (s) to stabilize inventory storage costs while maintaining enough stock to meet customer demand. If done right, proper stock control can optimize logistics costs while ensuring you have just enough stock stored at all times.
How does stock control help logistics?
If done right, proper stock control can optimize logistics costs while ensuring you have just enough stock stored at all times. In order to control stock, you will need access to tools and data to make better predictions on supply and demand.
How does Shipbob help with logistics?
Optimizing stock levels isn’t the only way to reduce logistics costs. Along with our inventory management tools, ShipBob offers the ability to split inventory across multiple fulfillment center locations to reduce shipping costs and speed up last-mile delivery .
Why is historical order data important in ecommerce?
Historical order data helps with forecasting demand, which can also help to provide insights into which items you need to reorder at the SKU level in given time period.
Why is it important to store inventory across locations?
You can easily visualize where your customers are, and compare your current and ideal distribution to optimize product allocation: Another benefit of storing inventory across locations is that it allows you to have backup stock in case of emergency ( e.g., unexpected warehouse closure due to bad weather).
What is JIT inventory?
Just-in-time (JIT) The JIT inventory method refers to ordering as much stock required to meet customer demand, but it also requires the ability to order quickly soon after to meet the next batch of orders.
What happens if you don't order enough stock?
But not ordering enough stock can cause items to be out of stock, can lead to backorders, and cause a decline in customer satisfaction. Obviously, each scenario is less than ideal.
How does stock control work?
How Control Stock Works. Stock control, also known as inventory control, manages how much product a company has on hand . However, stock control also manages how much stock a certain shareholder or group of shareholders own. Shareholders who control a majority of a company's shares effectively have enough voting power to dictate the firm's decisions.
What is control stock?
Control stock refers to equity shares owned by major shareholders of a publicly traded company.
Why is control stock beneficial?
Benefits of Control Stock. Many investors would like to be able to make crucial decisions for a company. One method of being able to have such control is by owning control stock. This requires money to be available to purchase such stock. A rather beneficial reason to have control stock is being paid.
Is it better to own a lot of stock or pay dividends?
It is even better for the investor if the company offers dividends with its stock. Owning a lot of stock that pays dividends can increase the income of the investor immensely. The dividends can be used however the owner wants, but it is another source of income to throw around or even reinvest.
What is the purpose of ordering raw materials?
Ordering the minimum amount of raw materials needed for specific production runs and reordering more frequently, in order to reduce the investment in raw materials. Creating cells in the production area, which are responsible for creating goods or sub-assemblies from start to finish.
Is there a perfect state in stock control?
There is no perfect state that can be attained in the stock control area. Instead, the planning staff is always balancing the demands of different parts of the business to attain a reasonably optimal solution - which may change the next day.
Why do we need a clear system?
Another reason for having a clear system is that you don’t want to rely on a single person to get you the stuff you need. You want your system to be learnable that in case something happens to your key personnel, your business can still operate. Many times, entrepreneurs do their stock keeping their way.
Who checks the ingredients in a restaurant?
Also, keep in mind to check for the quality as well and not just the number of items. In restaurants, it is ultimately the chef ‘s job to check the ingredients that they use. For medical organizations, it’s the doctors or the medical technologists. 2.
What is ABC analysis?
ABC analysis is used to prioritize which products are given more attention in inventory control using (1) value and (2) cardinality or the numbers of such products to estimate importance.
What does the number of things in inventory tell you?
So, in fact, the number of things in your inventory tells you something about the health of your business. Again, inventory management is intertwined with other aspects. It is a key piece of the puzzle. The physical number of stocks changes whenever you ship items or receive orders.
Does inventory management software improve inventory?
However, having inventory management software doesn’t automatically improve inventory management. This article shines a light on the best practices as well as nifty tips and tricks to work with your inventory. It also serves as a guide on how to improve your inventory management skills.
Is monitoring a siloed operation?
Thus, monitoring shouldn’t be a siloed operation. It should be an integrated function of the whole business process. You’d want it to be visible and easily quantifiable for it to be actionable and profitable. Thus, keeping track of it well is good practice.
Can you get short stocked?
In cases where they don’t manage their inventory and orders well, you too can get short stocked. This puts your sales and credibility at risk as well. In other cases, you might get more stock items than you actually wanted. Without checking, you wouldn’t be able to make necessary returns in time before the next order.
Why is efficient stock control important?
Efficient stock control allows you to have the right amount of stock in the right place at the right time. It ensures that capital is not tied up unnecessarily, and protects production if problems arise with the supply chain.
What is computerised stock control?
Computerised stock control systems run on similar principles to manual ones, but are more flexible and information is easier to retrieve. You can quickly get a stock valuation or find out how well a particular item of stock is moving.
What is stocktaking in accounting?
Stocktaking involves making an inventory, or list, of stock, and noting its location and value. It's often an annual exercise - a kind of audit to work out the value of the stock as part of the accounting process.
How to improve inventory control?
1. Understand the goals of any inventory control system. An inventory control system should accomplish three key goals . Knowing these goals are helpful in letting you know if your current system is effective, if it can be improved, as well as how it can be improved.
What is the first step in inventory control?
The first step to inventory control is being deeply aware of how much inventory you have on hand at any given time, what type of inventory you have available, where the inventory is located, and how it changes over time. Today, there are plenty of software applications that can assist in this process.
What is an inventory control system?
Exactly! An inventory control system should accomplish 3 key goals: it should let you know what is in your inventory at all times, it should detect and update changes in your inventory, and it should let you know how much inventory to order and when to reorder.
Why do you need a separate financial system?
You need a separate financial system to analyze your revenue and expenditures. Your inventory system should keep an accurate count of your products so that you know when and how much to order. Click on another answer to find the right one... To notify you when you need to reorder products.
How to manage inventory?
1. Analyze sales data. The goal of inventory management is to keep up with demand , and this means that you will need enough inventory to meet whatever your projected sales are. If you have been in business for a period of time, you can use historical sales to predict approximately what your future sales will be.
When to run a point of sale report?
It allows you to run reports at the end of the business day, the month, the sales report period, or any other designated time frame. If your business has a very large inventory and if many sales are made throughout a day, a point-of-sale system can allow you to track your inventory in real time.
Do you need to add inventory to software?
If you are using software, you will want to add your starting inventory to the software. You will need to add the item number, purchase information, as well as vendor. This will add the item to the software, and when you purchase inventory from now on, the software will automatically update the inventory.
Why do we carry safety stock?
Carry safety stock to reduce risk of stock outs. Safety stock, also called buffer stock, is the layer of inventory kept to prevent stockouts and back orders in situations where the forecast is exceeded or supply is delayed.
What is inventory policy?
Inventory policies ensure you’re stocking the right goods in the right quantities – a must for good inventory control in the warehouse. Make sure you have a set of ‘rules’ for every SKU you carry. Inventory classification, such as
What is ABC analysis?
ABC analysis is a good inventory control technique to segment your warehouse stock based on the value it brings to the company. Every item in your warehouse has a different value in terms of how much money it makes the business.
When do businesses reorder?
Most businesses will reorder either when they hit a fixed date or when stock drops to a specified level – the defined reorder point. The amount they reorder is usually either a fixed amount or variable to meet a minimum or maximum stock capacity. Many ERP and WMS systems will use one of these approaches.
Can you optimize stock levels?
It’s impossible to optimize your stock levels without considering supply and demand variables. Effective inventory control techniques therefore rely on stock optimization tactics. Many businesses use standard ERP or WMS systems to execute their stock control procedures while others still resort to spreadsheets.
