How to Manage Your Inventory Across Multiple Warehouses

Managing a warehouse is stressful as you have to keep track of inventory, record sales, and manage employees, among other necessities. This monitoring diligence is necessary as a business owner so you would not run at a loss. After experiencing this depot management hurdle, imagine you are in charge of two or more stores simultaneously. How do you go about it without exhausting yourself?

The solution is the use of suitable stockroom technology.

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) serves as an extra hand to simplify operational processes within your depot. Interestingly, you can use it to keep track of goods across multiple stores. So you do not have to worry about moving from one location to another to track your commodity distribution at any time.

It is that easy.

This write-up will teach you how the right depot management system helps you save cost, energy, and time while monitoring your business inventories.

Here are tips on how to manage your goods across all your storerooms:

• Track all your incoming goods accurately.

To correctly manage your products across your warehouses, use a depot management system while you supervise. This is because the manual approach is prone to irregularities in your inventory data record. For instance, if you simultaneously receive goods from your partners in stores A and B, your employees might not document the exact inventory number because they know you cannot keep track of all incoming goods at once. But you can prove them wrong by using the right technology to tackle this challenge.

When you use a warehouse inventory system (WIS), you get the exact number of commodities in your store, whether you are at your office or not. There is no room for irregularities as your staff understands that there is a foolproof structure in place that flags unevenness in your inventory data.

This management software also allows you to integrate your business partners into the system so they can upload and record the necessary details of incoming commodities even before they arrive at your warehouse. Your employees will only have to sort each product into the right places. If a product gets missing during the stock inventory logistics, you can quickly identify who is responsible.

This way, your store management system makes it easier to keep an eye on all your incoming items across your multiple warehouses.

• Synchronise all your warehouse inventories.

When you synchronise all your goods across multiple stores, it is easier to monitor your commodities despite not being at your storeroom locations. Using your WMS,  you have a record of everything inside your depot, so your items are safe whether you are on-site or not.

As a business owner, having your goods data in a central system makes it easier to identify commodities that need restocking and those with low sales. For instance,  you have three thousand cups recorded in each of your five depots. Then, your client requested the supply of two thousand mugs for immediate delivery. If your depot A supplies your customer’s demand, you must restock to avoid falling short of another client’s request. So when you synchronise all your warehouse items on a system, you get a notification that your depot A is short of cups.

Also, having a record of all your commodity data on a central system helps you identify goods with low and high customer demand. Since your warehouse management software keeps track of every item that comes in or leaves your store, you will know if product A sales are booming and why there is no need to buy more of product B.

Despite operating across different stores, synchronising all your items in your WMS will make it easier to have an idea of everything ongoing with your inventories.

• Integrate all your suppliers into your inventory system.

Integrating your business partners into your management system makes it easier to monitor your goods as it leaves their location for yours. Also, it encourages more business opportunities as your associates know you trust them.

When you integrate your suppliers into your inventory software, you receive notifications about any change in cost price or unavailability of a commodity. In addition, when your system is down, your associate can help you keep up with your inventories.

Having your partners on your inventory system also ensures that when you run low on stock in any of your warehouses, they will get notifications and bring the supply before you run out of it. Furthermore, the system ensures a smooth update and communication between you and your suppliers.

Interestingly, all depot technology processes are automated to enable you to concentrate on other vital areas that improve your profit revenue.

• Your warehouse software helps analyse your sales.

Using a centralised warehouse management system, you can identify every high-sale product across all your warehouses and the underlying ones because every item in your store is on your depot software. So you can easily pick out commodities that boom in the market and those with a low output.

When your inventory software signifies that an item has stayed too long in your stockroom, you know there is no need to order more since it has poor sales. And for those with high sales, you can place orders for more to meet demands.

• Re-strategise how you do your stock count.

Since you are managing more than a single warehouse, you need to re-strategise how you record your inventory to avoid product miscalculations. The reason is that the counting technique used in depot A might not be effective in depot B. Therefore, it is best to use a universal store management system to avoid falling short on inventory accountability. Then, you can effectively keep track of all your items without missing anyone.

For example, you cannot use the same analogue counting approach used for clothing in depot B to record grain supplies in depot A. However, the best way to manage both items in your different warehouses is to calculate the food item in bags and the wear in bales. This idea makes it easier to have a whole record of both products,  compared to counting the materials per cloth and the grains per cup, which could be time-consuming.

If you manage multiple stores, it is best to use software (inventory technology) that counts your packages so you would not experience flawed inventory counts. Although the analogue stock counting approach might be practical for a warehouse, it gets complicated when managing multiple stockrooms.

Currently, the use of inventory software is the best tool for monitoring your depot product.

• Always check in on your warehouse.

Although inventory systems are a practical approach to keeping track of all your store items, it is best to always check in on your warehouse to ensure everything is in the right order. The reason is that you are not the only client of your suppliers, as they have to respond to numerous calls. So, while your stock system provides updates on when your goods get to your depot, your physical presence sometimes is required to ensure products are delivered at the expected time.

Being present does not imply your distrust for the warehouse software; it only shows that you want to ensure operational processes are in progress. Also, you can identify areas that need new development and provide due solutions when necessary.

To ensure effective management of your inventories in all your warehouses, dedicate a day or two to check your products across your multiple depots.

• Strategise an inventory plan with your warehouse management system report.

Successful multiple warehouse management takes time. The most important thing is your approach to positive business change. For example, when your stock system provides reports on your multiple store inventory operations, you should analyse the report and devise a plan to manage your supplies better. By adhering to this directive, you will experience less stock loss, irrespective of the depot number under your command.

When you receive your stockroom report, the first thing to do is go through the details and identify the best-selling items and the season you have the most sales, among other necessities. Then, based on this fact, you can strategise a marketing campaign to use the following year that will drive more distribution.

Using an inventory system to manage stocks has driven many businesses to success. You can also take advantage of this software to simplify and manage your warehouse distribution.

Currently, the best warehouse management software in town is Hidden Brains solutions. Get in touch with us to digitalise your stock management.

To book a free demo, call us at +234 915 242 4242 or visit https://www.hiddenbrains.africa/warehouse-inventory-management-solutions.html