9 Mistakes Electrical Supply Distributors Should Avoid Managing Inventory

Electrical supply distribution is a competitive business.

Many distributors rely on their manual internal business processes or software to help them decide when to replenish the inventory of stock products and how much of each product to reorder. They are relying on the system to alleviate customer service problems and improve profitability. Unfortunately we’ve found that often management and even buyers do not understand what the actual definition and purpose of each of the application’s parameters. As a result, the system is often setup incorrectly or misused and the distributor does not receive all of the possible value from their manual process or very expensive inventory management tool.

1. Avoid manually tracking orders using a program such as Excel. It is difficult to deal with the issue of items being out of stock.
2. Avoid waiting until the stock is replenished to manually enter the order at that time.
3. Avoid manually tracking inventory costs through a manual process.
4. Avoid manually tracking costs of inventory in and out of the warehouse at different costs.
5. Avoid waiting until the order is filled and then manually update inventory. That gives an inaccurate picture of inventory levels.
6. Avoid manually providing updates/transactions to inventory items when items are purchased, received or returned. That gives an inaccurate picture of inventory levels.
7. Avoid manually tracking orders or lacking an efficient method of processing back orders.
8. Avoid manually tracking which customers still need orders filled.
9. Do a physical cycle count often enough so the delta between actual inventory isn't too high of a percentage.

About Optimize Our Inventory

Established in 1988 and Headquartered in Orange County CA, Optimize Our Inventory is a division of aimINSIGHT Solutions, Inc. Our Vision is to serve the mid-sized Electrical Supply and Distribution companies as well as other Wholesale Distribution companies. We specialize in addressing and Bridging the Gap in technology. The goal of providing a Single Invoice, Single Shipment from multiple suppliers sources and Multiple Locations challenges that most Electrical Distributors face. Our team of consultants will visit you onsite and design the solution that fits your unique budget and challenges. We have worked with most of the off the shelf software available today. Our software solution and technology consulting is designed to “Bridge the Gap” that you face. 

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