Consumable stock management refers to the process of managing a business’s stock inventory – which most often includes the everyday items a business and its employees utilise for daily tasks, jobs, and projects. For a construction worker, for example, these everyday inventory items can include nuts and bolts, screws, nails, heavy-duty glues, and other adhesive materials. For a corporate office worker, on the other hand, these consumable items can often include stationery materials such as pens and pencils, coloured highlighters and markers, printer ink and toner, notepads, printing paper, and other writing materials.
Consumable stock management is also especially important in a factory setting, where there is a high turnover in the use of inventory items employees need to complete certain jobs and actions on the factory floor. But how best to manage the stock in your business’s consumable inventory? Read on for our 5 top tips for the best consumable stock management strategies.
Consumable Stock Management Tip #1: Invest in a Consumable Cabinet
A consumable cabinet is an essential tool in effective consumable inventory stock management. Importantly, using a consumable cabinet can enable a business to manage the use and stock levels of every day, high-use inventory items that employees require to complete tasks, jobs, and actions daily. It also enables a business to retain and record information on how often inventory stock items are used, and also to ascertain the business’s supply and demand requirements and needs moving forward.
Further, it also allows employees to gain access to only the tools and materials they need at that immediate moment at any given point in time, by effectively and efficiently dispensing and providing them with what they require in an instant. Not only that, but a consumable cabinet is also a fantastic storage tool, as it allows for a clear and easy presentation of stock as displayed in a windowed cabinet format. The best consumable cabinets also allow for the use of stock inventory management software – which will be touched on later in this article – usually as integrated technology into the cabinet.
Consumable Stock Management Tip #2: Understand Your Supply And Demand Requirements and Needs
By using the technology integrated into a consumable cabinet, for example – or even any other inventory stock management software, for instance – you can establish strategies to ascertain and understand how much stock your business needs to carry out, complete, and bring projects to execution. Understanding your business’s supply and demand for inventory stock is crucial to effectively running your business, and ensuring that your projects are running to peak capacity. It also ensures that you are not ordering too much, or too little stock to suit your business’s requirements.
Consumable Stock Management Tip #3: Get On Top of Your Inventory Orders and Ordering Process
Stock inventory ordering processes are another vital step you need to get down pat to successfully run your business. On this subject, the popular method of ‘Just In Time’ ordering is engaged by many successful businesses as the most effective method of stock ordering and inventory control. This method involves ordering stock items to be delivered to the factory floor or construction site – or indeed, the site of any project being completed – quite literally, just in time for it to be used immediately. This allows for reduced wastage of stock, less holding and storage time, improved efficiency, and higher levels of productivity.
Consumable Stock Management Tip #:4 Engage in Strategic, Purposeful Economic Order Quantity or EOQ
Economic Order Quantity, also known as EOQ, is a mathematical equation a business can use to strategically calculate the minimum amount of stock it needs to effectively perform and execute projects. By calculating this ideal quantity, a business can minimise waste, and inventory costs – such as holding costs, for example, order costs, or even shortage costs.
Consumable Stock Management Tip #5: Utilise Stock Management Software
As mentioned earlier, a consumable cabinet that integrates stock management software and technology into its functions and capabilities is ideal. However, other inventory control programs can also be used – such as computer software that calculates and records how much stock a business has on hand, and how much it needs to order in the future.
