Name: Spire Integrated Accounting, Inventory and Sales Management Solution
Brand: Spire
Rating: 4.7 (542 reviews)

6 Effective Tips For Multi-Warehouse Inventory Management

Effective inventory management for your growing business is crucial. As your company transitions from a single-warehouse to a multi-warehouse model, you can encounter problems with inventory accuracy. Small problems that are easy to solve before your business growth, have now become big problems. When you have more than one warehouse, you need a multi-warehouse inventory management solution. With that in mind, we have 6 tips for you to consider:

Tip 1: Optimize Communication Flows Across Warehouse Locations

Making sure that all warehouses are on the same page is harder than it sounds. If you are not using the right inventory management software, each warehouse is going to have its own filing system. Each warehouse will have its own order system, and its own way of maintaining inventory. Thus, the goal of any inventory management system should be smooth, cross-warehouse communications. When you have a streamlined process in place, mainting it becomes easy. There now exists consistent communication flow between and among the different warehouses.

Tip 2: Ensure That All Data Remains Synced Across the Organization

If you are not using an integrated warehouse inventory management solution, you may experience time lags as different warehouses update their systems. Thus, it’s very important that you look for ways to implement real-time data. Real-time processes allow for a flow that covers all the major facets of inventory management. This is especially true if you are regularly transferring products from one location to another.

The real advantage of a warehouse inventory management software is that it has an integratedaccounting and sales function. This means that as soon as sales orders come in that information flows directly to your operations and logistics team. If there are changes to inventory stock, these changes immediately show within the accounting system. This transparency is appreciated amognst company managers who regularly run reports giving them the confidence that all data is synced.

Tip 3: Re-Evaluate How You Do Warehouse Inventory Stock Counts

Since there are multiple ways counting inventory, your business needs to re-evaluate its method used in managing one warehoues. For example, what works well with just a handful of high-value items in one location will not work nearly as well for another warehouse location with thousands of lower-value products.

The problem with inaccurate, delayed, or otherwise flawed inventory counts is that it leads to problems for your inventory-centric business. Incorrect counts bring your orders to grinding to a halt. Chief among these problems is the ever-present threat of an inventory stock-out. With just a single warehouse location, it might be possible to detect a depleted stock level of a popular product. However, with multiple warehouse locations, it is easy to assume that “the other warehouse location” must have ample supply of this product. You can’t afford to assume. A multi-warehouse inventory management missing takes the guess work out of the equation, iltimately resulting in your customer’s satisfaction.

Tip 4: Change the Layout of Your Warehouse Locations

There are a few best practices for warehouse inventory management that are commonly shared across all industries. Chief among these is that high-volume and popular products should always be stocked near the loading dock (i.e. the exit). Over time, the time savings from this approach can really add up. When it comes to the overall layout, you also want to make sure that people pulling product off the shelf are not caught in a giant maze.

If you find that executing orders is taking too much time and leading to shipping delays, then it might make sense to create maps of the warehouse that can be shared with employees. And it definitely makes sense to label each shelf, each zone, and each area of the warehouse very clearly. In many ways, warehouse layout is just an optimization problem: your goal should be to reduce the overall path traveled by employees as they fulfill orders, and to make the most popular products easily accessible on the shelf.

Tip 5: Optimize Warehouse Locations For Geography

Geography always plays a role. In the best of all possible worlds, your warehouses would be located as close as possible to the end customer. Ideallt, instead of waiting for a product to travel from one end of the country to the other, your product arrives in the customers hands within 1-2 days. Saving on shipping and transport costs, and creating the best overall customer satisfaction.

The reality is not all your warehouse locations are located within close proximity of yourcustomer bases. For one, there is the issue of higher labor and rental costs associated when a warehouse in a very densely populated metropolitan area. Moreover, there may be regulatory or tax issues involved with having a warehouse in another state, province or country. For that reason, warehouse location involves a number of factors, including the trade-off between rental costs and transport costs for a certain region. Tracking all these factors and their costs is a crucial part of your multi-warehouse inventory managment solution. You want to make sure that you have the ability and ease to account for everything – regardless of where your warehouses are located.

Tip 6: Look For Cost and Time Savings Based On Inventory Data Flows

As a responsible business manager you are constantly looking to streaml your logistical and operational flows. One way of doing this is by tapping into all the data that your business generates. Information about order transport and shipping times is helpful when you want to expedite shipping processed to move products from one location to another. Or, data entry into the system from accounting and sales teams is crucial in order to anticipate consumer demand for a particular product.

The more that your business can become proactive, and not just reactive, the more successful that it is going to be. By leveraging these top tips for multi-warehouse inventory management, you can ensure that your business stays one step ahead of the competition.

Contact us today for a free trial of Spire and expeience how we handle multi-warehouse invetory management.

What’s Your Definition of Success?

Success. That word represents happiness, prosperity, and ultimately the accomplishment of dreams. However, success is mostly dependent on the parameters within which we as individuals place it. Professional success takes on a slightly different meaning depending on the individual who does the defining.

Most of us can agree that success is something we all strive for. Whether we are an artist, a visionary, or a business mogul, the end goal is still represented by our own interpretation of success. Before we can attain anything that remotely looks and feels like success, we must first overcome obstacles and challenges that stand in our way.

The average person might define successful individuals as those who have it all and never seem to be worn down by life’s overwhelming challenges. What these people fail to realize is that success can never be fully achieved unless the person stays motivated through failures and obstacles that are thrown in their way. Traditional concepts of success are all around us, with the most popular caricatures possessing wealth and popularity. Not everyone shares that definition of success.

For you as an individual, the importance of sifting through these traditional representations of success is the key to discovering your own definition. Do you dream of being your own boss? Are you passionate about devoting your time, energy and resources for a good cause? What warms your soul and brings a smile to your face? Answering these questions will help you redefine success for your life, and will help you eliminate the unnecessary pressure put on you by traditional concepts.

Money is rarely satisfying enough to become the definition of success. For those who use it to accomplish their true life goals, it becomes a means to an end that leaves them feeling truly successful.

What to Do with Low Priority Items

Every good manager or business owner has a to-do list that keeps them on the straight and narrow. However, issues can easily arise if you’re not simplifying your list wherever possible. For example, if you find yourself spending most of your time replying to customer inquiries, it might be time to pass on this task to a qualified individual. Doing so will help you knock out your to-do list, while at the same time assist you in keeping up with important information.

Low priority items can be any range of tasks from picking up dry cleaning, sending out invoices to scheduling staff meetings. The key is to know who to pass these work items off to while maintaining a high quality result. To determine what to do with your low priority to-do list items, consider a few important questions we’ve outlined below.

Can you make the task more efficient?

If you can streamline common tasks, such as providing business information directly on your website for clients to easily access, then do so. Ask yourself if the task can be completed in a simpler, yet efficient manner and then act on the answer.

Can you eliminate the task altogether?

If you’re completing tasks that largely go unnoticed by your customers, then why not consider eliminating it, or at the very least reducing it? Unimportant tasks can eat up your time without providing any financial benefit. Sort out these time-vacuums and start eliminating them.

Are there shortcuts available for the task?

You cannot receive an answer to a question you never asked, so start by asking yourself if and what shortcuts are available for repetitive tasks on your list. You might be surprised at what technology can do for you, and doing a bit of research will help you discover shortcuts you never knew existed.

Productivity is all about value, so if you can find a way to reduce the amount of work you’re doing then by all means do it!

Setting Goals for Success

Whether you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting your first business, setting SMART goals can help define your business priorities with clear objectives that put you on the path to success. SMART goals are defined as: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. Each criteria plays an integral part in creating goals for your company.

Specific

Write exactly what you want to accomplish with your goal based on the five Ws:

What do I want to achieve?
Why do I want accomplish this goal?
Where will this happen?
Who is involved?
When do I want to achieve this?

A specific goal must be clear so that all parties can understand and answer the questions above.

Measurable

Your goals should be measurable so that you can track the progress towards achieving them. This means that there must be quantifiable indicators that prove you have reached your goal. This criteria helps answer the question: How do I know if I have accomplished my goal?

Achievable

An achievable goal means that it is attainable with the given resources and capabilities. The goal should be challenging enough so that it motivates your team. However, making a goal too challenging can create frustration so it’s important to keep the goal realistic.

Relevant

Does the goal align with your company’s vision? It’s important to set goals that are relevant and add value to the business. When you achieve relevant goals, you help move the company towards greater success.

Time-based

Set a specific and realistic time frame for your goals. If you’re choosing bite-size measures, a month in advance may be realistic, while larger product or service launches may require several months. A deadline can create a sense of urgency and help motivate your team.

Do your business goals align with the overall vision of your company? If not, you may wish to make some adjustments on either end. This will help ensure that your company is on track for success.

Do You Need to Be in the Cloud?

The “cloud” term gets tossed around quite a bit, and many individuals are already using cloud services to store their photos, music files, and ebooks. Businesses can also take advantage of cloud services, whether it’s a software-as-a-service (SaaS) or technical services that would otherwise be too expensive to manage on-premise. However, it’s important to understand how using cloud services will impact your business.

Moving your business operations to the cloud, can save you money. There will be no need for expensive server upgrades, as you’ll be utilizing your vendor’s servers. No longer will you need to bear the brunt of expensive hardware or worry about hiring IT technicians to service them. If yourbusiness management solution is a SaaS service, then you’re accessing your business data over the internet and all of your information stored in the cloud. There will be little or no extra costs to store more data as your business grows.

While cloud services sound appealing, it’s not always the right option for your business. Here are a few considerations before you decide to take your business to the cloud:

Security

While security is constantly being improved, cloud services can still be a target for cybercrime attacks. Working directly from a hard drive or on-premise server can be more secure than storing data in the cloud. While technology finds safer ways to store data, the truth of the matter is that hackers are becoming smarter day by day. We continually hear stories in the news about hacked servers.

Accessibility

Access to your services will be disrupted if you don’t have an internet connection. If your internet service provider goes down, you’re locked out of your account. This means you’ll have employees sit idle, waiting for the connection to come back up again. Outages can affect your business and having an on-premise solution would resolve this issue.

Data Location and Ownership

Another concern for cloud users is whether their data is being stored locally, and if so, where? This is important for businesses that need to be compliant with data protection laws and regulations.

So what if you’re not happy with your current cloud service provider? There are tons of providers out there but how easy is it to switch? For cloud business management systems, you may find out that it is more difficult than anticipated. And if you do decide to switch, will the current vendor keep a copy of your data on their servers? It’s important to ask these questions so that you fully understand how your data is kept secure.

Compatibility

Will your company need new hardware that will work with cloud technology? Despite the benefits of using cloud services, you need to have hardware that is compatible with this service. Assess your workstations and find out if you need to upgrade them. This may increase your upfront costs and these additional costs need to be calculated before moving into the cloud.

Cloud services has many benefits, including access to software that would otherwise be too expensive to manage on their own. However, it’s important to consider if these benefits outweigh the risks of using cloud services before you start using them.

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