Tracking inventory is complex!
A comprehensive system that is easy to use helps manufacturers track the location, orders, and costs for all their inventory. Then, they can focus on building and delivering products to highly-satisfied customers.
LOCATION OF INVENTORY
Inventory includes raw materials, unfinished goods, and ready-to-sell items. Knowing the location of your items reduces loss and waste, equips Sales, and avoids supply chain risks. By creating barcodes, scanning items, and capturing your data in Odoo's Inventory application, you can manage the following:
Raw Materials: These might be stored in a warehouse or in a closet. How are you tracking the amounts? How do you determine and manage items that are no longer relevant?
Unfinished Goods: Do you rely on third parties, such as a coating company, as part of your process? If so, how do you track inventory when a separate vendor is working on it? How do you track the locations of your separate, partially completed components? Who tracks the completion of individual components?
Ready-to-sell Items: Are they in a showroom, on a truck, at a trade show, with a reseller or direct sales rep, rented out, or elsewhere? Are there used or discontinued items that are ready to be sold?
ORDERING INVENTORY
Knowing where to find your parts is essential, but what happens when you do not have parts in stock? A smart ordering process eliminates downtime, enables you to complete and ship your products faster, and provides your customers with the best service for the best price. The following challenges can be managed with Odoo's Warehouse Management system in the Inventory Application:
- What is your process to order materials to minimize supply chain risks?
- How do you determine what items to stock versus which items to purchase as needed?
- What is your process to restock materials? Do you have to reach a certain threshold or date of replacement?
- When and how do you pay vendors?
COSTS OF ITEMS
When items sit in inventory for a long time, the original cost of each item can be forgotten or become irrelevant if their value has increased or diminished. As a result, it is common for manufacturers to be uncertain about the actual value of their items, especially in industries relying on raw materials that fluctuate widely in cost. Spreadsheets help manage price lists, but they are difficult to maintain accurately and are complicated for tracking customized goods. Odoo's Manufacturing Application can help you track and calculate your costs accurately:
- How do you compare prices of materials from different vendors? Compare shipping costs?
- When are bulk purchases advantageous?
- How do you calculate overall costs per items, especially when the cost of raw materials fluctuates?
- Do you increase your prices annually? If so, how do you determine the increases?
- How do you communicate to Sales what pricing is approved?
- Do I calculate shipping into the cost of the item or charge separately?
Odoo Makes Tracking Inventory Easy!
Tracking inventory is complex, but we can help you make it easy. With Odoo ERP, BizyLife enables manufacturers to track the locations of all of their inventory, manage and prioritize their orders, and accurately calculate the total costs of their items. Contact us a call when you are ready to simplify this complex process, so you can increase your profitability and deliver outstanding customer service.
Inventory Tracking Simplified in Odoo