The manufacturing industry has faced many challenges this past year and many businesses have started putting measures in place to be better prepared for supply chain disruptions, surges in demand and labour shortages.
Production can be further streamlined and inventory number more accurate with the use of barcode and RFID systems. Small businesses who struggled to maintain accuracy found themselves tripped up by human error, lack of manpower to conduct a physical inventory and higher demand than inventory allowed for. Over the next five years, experts predict the barcode printing market will grow at least 150% to 5.3 billion dollars with the most growth in the mobile printing sector.
Barcode systems have grown in popularity because they allow workers to quickly scan and update inventory counts throughout the inventory system, logging arrival data, supplier, expiration dates, sizes, colours, descriptions, instructions and more. Once the product is entered into the system, anyone can update the product information to record production steps, costs, labour, etc.
is a powerful and affordable software system designed for small businesses to do thorough inventory tracking with barcodes.
Having accurate inventory information is vital for management to determine if a product is profitable, determining when to order more product and planning for upcoming seasons. If a business isn’t keeping on top of costs, waste, and overages, it could be miscalculating reorder points and ending up with either too much or too little stock. Both scenarios are undesirable.
Dealing with Changing Trends Moving Forward
More people are ordering things online, even items they normally purchased in a brick-and-mortar store, such as frozen food items. This type of shopping behaviour manifested because of people being locked in and unable to eat meals in restaurants. Ecommerce retailers have seen a surge in demand with this shift to online shopping behaviour. Keeping up with demand meant increasing order sizes or quickly finding alternate suppliers, even local ones, who could provide raw materials with shorter lead times.
Growth has increased the need for efficient inventory management. The more information available for each product, the greater the control over costs. When information is siloed by department, everyone’s numbers reflect inventory counts for that department. Costs and quantities change as products work their way through production.
Tracking also allows business to analyze product data to identify where waste, breakage or theft is occurring. Inventory numbers in your finance department should match physical inventory and if they aren’t updated in real-time, your bookkeeping records will be off.
There will be some growing pains as businesses adjust to changing demand, rising costs, and labour shortages. Any software that helps businesses cut back on overhead and labour is bound to grow in popularity such as conferencing tools and inventory control software. Barcode tracking has been popular for many years, and now small businesses are being compelled to step up to stay in the game. It has only become more difficult to thrive in this environment but having access to the tools that save time and improve accuracy are key to growth and success.
