Thousands of items are sorted through by wholesalers every year. Often times, these items are shipped in bulk and wholesale companies must sort through the items before they can sell it. Controlling inventory is crucial to maintaining a profit when wholesalers process these products. How can wholesalers manage inventory control with speed and accuracy?
They can use a manual system. Some of the smaller warehouses still use manual systems to input their inventory. Wholesalers dealing with a small quantity of large items would benefit from this manual method. Companies that use hand count and packing sheet systems will still enter their data into a computer. Long hours are needed to maintain the data and search for possible errors.
Bar code Systems are another option. Bar code systems use printed bar codes and infrared scanners to input inventory, and they are very affordable for small and medium wholesalers. Systems usually come with software and a scanner and can run as low as $500 to $1000. If you have several employees inputting data, additional scanners will be a worthwhile expense. Laser printers are the best way to print bar codes, and are unfortunately more expensive to maintain than an ink jet printer, putting this system at a slight disadvantage. Moisture or poor handling procedures may also damage bar codes and make it difficult to ship products.
You could look at radio frequency identification systems. Tags embedded with an integrated circuit, contain information about items, and make radio frequency identification systems, or RFIDs worth looking into. As a product comes within range, a decoder or antenna processes the information and sends it to a computer to process. Large wholesalers would benefit most from this hands free system, because the tags will hold up better than a bar code will. RFID tags are also able to hold a large amount of information about a product as opposed to the bar code’s minuscule storage capabilities. Products can even be processed by decoders or antennas placed in doorways, to minimize the number of employees needed.
Wholesalers depend largely on inventory control. Important customer issues revolve around storage times, available quantity, and the condition of the product. Catalogs and websites are the most common method of sales for wholesalers. Without a computer system to help identify items quickly, finding an item amongst hundreds in a large warehouse is difficult at best. Similar items pulled by workers can often lead to mistakes that can be avoided by computerized systems. Take careful steps to weigh start up costs with any maintenance costs you may face before purchasing an inventory control system. Once you have made your decision, you will enjoy letting the computer do the hard work for you.
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