Since 2020, supply chains are facing new and extraordinary challenges. Consumers confront empty store shelves and online product shortages on a daily basis: food and beverages, clothing, gasoline, durable goods, pharmaceuticals or cosmetics--it may be some time before world supply chains return to anything resembling what we once considered normal.
The cosmetics industry, however, differs in several important ways from other enterprises. Unlike the food and beverage industry or the durable goods sector, cosmetics companies must adjust their product lines quickly based on consumer demand and marketplace trends.
Today's hot seller may be considered out of style in six short months. This means cosmetic manufacturers have to be agile and flexible in production and fulfillment. Items can’t just sit in a warehouse.
Cosmetic companies should focus on efficient inventory and warehouse management to keep store shelves and online retailers fully stocked and customers satisfied. In this blog post, we’ll discuss one of the best practices, inventory cycle counting, and the new ways of achieving more out of it.
Inventory Cycle Counting
Inventory cycle counting involves a comparison between physical counting and inventory records. The practice is a great way of determining the accuracy of your inventory management. When regularly and correctly done, cycle counting helps businesses to keep their inventory holding costs as low as possible.
Although it’s important, manual cycle counting is cumbersome and no one’s favorite job. You need a large part of your manpower and time to make sure the stock levels on your system match with the stock on your shelves. If you don’t count your inventory regularly, you may face huge inventory problems and revenue losses. You can call it a necessary evil. Cycle counting helps inventory managers identify significant warehouse issues before they show adverse effects. Cosmetic companies can greatly improve the accuracy of their inventory and financial statements by timely capturing and monitoring cycle counts.
Cosmetic companies, like many other industries, are embracing digital transformation. But some organizations still rely on paper-based processes to execute cycle counts. These manual processes make the already cumbersome task more difficult and inefficient. A minute error can lead to a great mismatch between the actual inventory levels and inventory data.
Using Digital Technologies to Optimize the Cycle Counting Process
Modern digital technologies such as barcode scanning, wearables and smartphones eliminate error-prone paper-based processes. Using barcode scanners enable warehouse workers to perform inventory counting faster, almost in 50% less time. Since workers don’t need to write down numbers, the chances for errors are zero. If these barcode solutions are integrated into the ERP system of your cosmetics company, data will be automatically updated into the system of records.
Innovapptive’s Connected Inventory Management is a mobile inventory management solution that makes cycle counting an easier exercise. This solution can be integrated into rugged barcode scanners, smartphones, and wearable devices. The recount feature in the solution allows you to recount the items which are already counted. If there is a huge mismatch of the system and count quantity, this feature will allow you to initiate a recount of the material.
Connected Inventory Management leverages smartphone cameras to allow inventory staff to take pictures of inventory and upload them into the ERP system’s cycle counting module. These can be saved for future references.
Watch an online demonstration of Connected Inventory Management in action by clicking this link. This demonstration showcases mInventory’s features and illustrates its benefits. To learn more about how Innovapptive’s mInventory can help your company increase its cycle counting efficiency and improve warehouse productivity, call 888-464-6668. Our experts are standing by to answer your questions, listen to your needs, and configure a solution to overcome your warehouse challenges.
