For organisations with complex inventory needs, NetSuite Advanced Inventory extends the platform’s functionality. It provides a singular, real-time perspective of inventory, items and orders spanning every selling channel to enable the swift and accurate fulfilment of orders.
There are tools for tracking inventory in more than one location, as well as managing cycle counts and safety stock, and determining reorder points. This amounts to empowering businesses to keep inventory costs to a minimum whilst meeting the expectations of their customers with regard to delivery.
What is inventory management?
Inventory management is an important part of the running of many organisations. It enables them to identify which stock to order at any given time, and in what quantity. It involves the tracking of inventory from the point it is purchased to the point of sale. Through the implementation of analysing data, trends can be identified and responded to so that there is always enough stock available to fulfill customer orders, and any impending shortages are seen in advance.
Once inventory is sold, it becomes revenue. Before sale, that inventory ties up cash. If stock levels become excessive then it can reduce cash flow. As such, you never want to have too much or too little stock of any item at any given time.
One metric for healthy inventory management is your inventory turnover. This is an accounting metric that reflects how often stock sells in a given period. Businesses do not want more or less stock than sales, as poor inventory turnover can lead to issues with customer satisfaction at one end of the scale, or with unsold stock at the other. Both are bad for business.
What are the biggest challenges of inventory management?
The primary challenges revolve around not having enough inventory to fulfill orders, having too much and not being able to sell it all, and not having a good understanding of what items are available and where they are located. There are other challenges, however, such as:
- Poor processes: outdated or manual processes result in slow operations and a greater risk of errors.
- Acquiring accurate stock details: if your inventory details are not accurate, there is no way to know which stock moves well and what items need refilling.
- Efficient use of warehouse space: when products are hard to locate, it wastes staff time. Effective inventory management can take this challenge out of the equation.
- Changes in customer demand: the needs and tastes of customers are always subject to change. If you don’t have a system that can track trends as they happen, how will you be able to understand and respond to changes in preferences among your customers?
NetSuite Advanced Inventory is a powerful solution equipped to meet these challenges head-on and enable access to a wide range of benefits.
NetSuite Advanced Inventory Benefits
- Reduce costs associated with procurement, warehousing, shipping and order fulfilment.
- Gain tighter control over the complete lifecycle of your inventory across more than one location.
- Eliminate issues like stock-outs and speed up deliveries for maximum customer satisfaction.
- Monitor and improve performance continuously with the help of real-time dashboards and analytics.
Highlights of the Solution
Inventory Control
NetSuite enhances your visibility of inventory with advanced tracking and control functions. This covers multiple locations and facilitates management of every stage of the lifecycle with superior control over costs. With NetSuite Advanced Inventory, you get:
- Visibility of items across all channels and locations in real-time.
- Landed cost allocation based around value, weight or quantity.
- Management of matrix items to be able to stock and supply similar products in a range of colour, size and style combinations. This simplifies SKU and pricing concerns.
- Lot management with the ability to track purchases, stock and sales of groups of items. This is done by assigning unique numbers to specific groups.
- Serialised inventory means you assign a serial number to every item for the purpose of tracking purchases and sales.
- Bin management facilitates improved organisation and tracking of the precise location of items that are stocked in your warehouse(s).
- A range of forms to run your daily supply chain operations. These include manufacturing dispatch lists, inventory count sheets and manufacturing travellers.
- Item labels and barcodes that can be printed out, including transaction numbers on packing slips, sales orders and invoices.
- Periodic inventory counts automate the calculation of on-hand item quantities whenever and wherever you need to.
Inventory cycle counting can be automated with the help of NetSuite Smart Count. Inventory levels are taken from the moment the count starts for an individual item. With Smart Count, transactions involving the items being counted are tracked, including if any activity occurs during the count. Counters will be automatically alerted by NetSuite so that they can react accordingly.
Demand-based Inventory Replenishment
NetSuite gives organisations smart control over the replenishment of inventory. This aids in ensuring that there is enough stock available to fill anticipated orders, but excess stock is kept to a minimum based on analysis of past orders and sophisticated forecasting for future requirements. With NetSuite Advanced Inventory, you can:
- Dynamically manage reorder points and preferred stock levels for specific items. This is done on the basis of average lead time alongside historical and seasonal-based sales demand. Number of days’ supply to stock is also accommodated.
- ‘Stock-outs’ can be avoided in order to maintain continuity at all times.
- Keep lag time to a minimum with real-time alerts whenever the software detects that stock has fallen to a predefined threshold.
Inventory Process Management
NetSuite optimises your core processes through the implementation of automation for various workflows. It also simplifies complex tasks so less time and effort is required for them. Use NetSuite Advanced Inventory to optimise your operations with capabilities like:
- Management of pick, pack and ship processes in environments where there is a high volume of orders to be processed.
- Authorisation of merchandise returns where warranty claims can be easily verified. This streamlines the processes of refunding, repairing or replacing whenever product defects are identified by the customer.
Conclusion
For businesses who deal with stock, strong inventory management capabilities are a must. Stock is cash at the end of the day and needs to be accounted for throughout its lifecycle. NetSuite Advanced Inventory offers businesses a robust way to track inventory from supply chain, right through to sale. This in turn ensures strong customer satisfaction through fulfillment of sales orders, and improved cash flow through improved stock turnaround.
Why choose Eventura to deliver your NetSuite ERP Project?
As an official NetSuite solution provider, we have successfully delivered countless NetSuite implementations. Our expert team of business analysts, developers, consultants, technicians and support staff can guide you through your entire project, from initial scoping through to implementation and on-going support.
We believe that NetSuite offers its customers a comprehensive suite of products that can digitally transform their businesses, replacing a range of disparate systems and softwares with one unified solution to business management.
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