Deposco StockForce Inventory Management : Cycle Counting

Are you the type of business that does a physical inventory count once (or several times) a year? Does it require your associates to work overtime or off-hours, or worse yet, does it shut down your operations completely while performing the count?

Physical inventory counts are a pain. All it takes is a quick Twitter hashtag search of #inventory to reveal that employees seem to really dread physical inventory counts (see image).  These pains plague many businesses running their warehouse on paper and spreadsheets, as well as those who may be tracking inventory in a system, but have no formal methodology to ensure inventory accuracy.

If this seems all too familiar, consider this—what if you didn’t have to bring your business to a grinding halt while performing inventory counts? Regular cycle counting can prevent (or at least minimize) the need for physical inventory counts. Daily cycle counts have proven to be less disruptive to business operations, increase inventory accuracy, reduce stock-outs or the number of back ordered items, and increasing customers order fill rate. Increasing order fill rates directly impacts customer service and your ability to earn the business of return customers time and time again, because they know when they place an order—you will have it in stock. This adds to your bottom line.

Deposco’s StockForce Inventory Management System promotes regular cycle counting, utilizing the traditional ABC method, in which items are classified by velocity, and the most popular selling/moving items are counted most frequently. Deposco’s StockForce can also perform inventory synchronization, with an ERP system or the like, to ensure actual stock is in synch with the ERP system’s theoretical stock.  Workers are directed (via handheld devices, like the Motorola MC 3000 or 9000 series) to perform scheduled cycle counts (daily, weekly, or monthly) or immediate counts.

To see this directed cycle count process in action, check out our short video.

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