Big industries that are indulged in the supply of finished products and raw materials to various vendors maintain a dedicated database of the finished products and the raw material that they own and develop. The development of the dedicated management system for databases is required by industries that have businesses on a large scale. Therefore these systems help these business houses in getting a clear picture of the product that has high demand in the market, the product requirement that they possess and other statistics related to the business operations.

This dedicated system is profoundly known as Inventory Management System. In simple words, it can be understood as the system by which you can manage the movement of the product (i.e. in & out) from the company. This system monitors the entire functional activities starting the production, details related to each and every movement is saved in the Inventory Management Software.

Moreover, this system is fully functional and well designed which provides a platform to the users where they can get all updated information related to stock, its location, the amount at which it can be sold easily and most importantly till when it can last. With this type of information, a company can easily avoid risks like storing excessive stock and shortage of stock. These risks can have a great impact on increasing the profitability and scalability of the company.

Market Overview:

• As per the statistics shared by the bureau of labour, the operating warehouses number is increasing year by year. Currently this number has reached at 10.4% from the last consecutive years 2015-2019, which has recorded an increase of 1600 new warehouses in the US itself.

Size of the Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) Market Worldwide, from 2016 to 2022

• The reports shared by Aberdeen Group states that today 87% customers are happy to wait for two or more days just to get a product with free shipping cost.
• As per the reports shared by Statista, now there is a 25% increase in the retailers and manufacturers which are investing in better warehouse management technology. This makes one thing clear that now companies are focused and are ready to invest into technical solutions to get better distribution technological centers.
• Research performed by RFID lab of Aubun University states that by item tagging the accuracy of inventory can be increased from 63% to 95%.

The sections where businesses are investing more

Workflow of Inventory Management System

How Inventory Management System Works:

The functionality of the inventory management system completely relies on the barcode scanning of the items. For reading the barcode available on the products a barcode scanner is required and the information in which the barcode transfers is interpreted by the computer machine. For example, The purchase order consists of various items that are to be well packed and shipped. Here the inventory management software can help in serving various functions.

By using it a worker can easily locate the items available on the order list in the warehouse, shipping information can be encrypted like delivery addresses & tracking numbers and the in-stock can be updated accurately to keep the inventory tally updated. With the help of this information the businesses can get real-time tracking information. Therefore with an inventory management system locating and analyzing inventory information in real-time is easy with a simple database search.

Benefits of Implementing an Inventory Management System

Operational Consistency:

Complete track of all the products can be maintained well with the help of an inventory management system. You can check the availability of the product easily without rushing to the warehouses and can save a lot of time and effort.

Consolidated Storage:

If you have your merchandise put away in various areas, it gets hard to oversee, arrange and send the correct items to the correct customers. Having an all around planned distribution center can assist you in following the accessibility of various items and keep the customers educated about the status of their shipment.

Enhances Productivity:

By keeping a total track all things considered, you can avoid losing your customers and diminish the danger of committing regular human detailing errors, for example, incorrect checking of items. Furthermore, with the inventory management system, you can without much of a stretch meet the delivery deadlines. The customers don’t need to wait long for their shipment arrival.

Regular monitoring of the received orders:

If the lack of stock is awful for your business, overloading is more awful. With a decent Inventory management system, you can follow your genuine stock supplies and re-request at whatever point is important. This will dispense with the wastage of items which thus prompts gigantic totals of cash misfortunes.

Happy Customers:

With exact responses, on-time delivery, and customized services, certainly will make your customers happy. They will have the option to follow the status of their shipment and won’t face the danger of late notification regarding the unavailability of the item.

Features of Inventory Management System

Items Listing:

This component helps you to streamline your stock with the assistance of essential details like availability, cost and so on. It empowers you to make choices for each thing depends on their characteristics and can systematically manage them.

Tracking the Assets:

This feature permits the tracking of the products that are stored in the store or warehouse by using the barcode, serial number, tracking number.

Easy re-ordering of the products:

Products that are required for stocking, inventory management system provided with the list of the products along with the required quantities. Therefore with the help of this, the manager can get an alert regarding the stock requirement.

Tracking the Raw Materials:

The availability of raw materials for starting new production can be known easily by this feature.

Accounts Management:

By utilizing tools like cost layering, measurements, overheads allocation, disclosures, the users can get an accurate evaluation of stocks in production.

Auto Refilling of Stock:

In the situation when the stocks are about to reach their minimum level with the help of this feature, refilling of the supplies can be done on the basis of the defined reorder points.

Barcode Scanning:

Barcode scanning of the products is possible by this feature. This electronic exchange of data is possible through barcode scanners or smartphones.

Support for multiple locations:

There can be a situation where a company may maintain multiple storage locations. By inventory management system proper tracking and management the availability of total stock quantity which is available for business can be done easily.

Logistics Management:

In order to bring transparency in movement of goods and material a third party vendor can be integrated with the system.

Tracking through Serial Numbers:

Many serial numbers can be tracked and managed easily that are recorded permanently in the system from the time they are received till the time they are issued.

Tracking through Shelf & Bin:

The precise location of a particular product present in the warehouse can be known easily without any delay by this feature.

Alerts of Inventory:

When the inventory level falls below a certain mark point which is defined or set by you. In that case, alerts related to inventory can be made and sent via Email and SMS by using this feature.

Stock Anticipation:

The situation of overstock or out of stock can be avoided by utilizing this feature as it helps in deciding the right amount of stock which is required by the inventory.

Integration of ERP:

In order to save time and avoid re-entering of data into separate programs, ERP integration with inventory management systems can be a fruitful decision in managing the various business operations.

Types of Inventory Management Software:

The types of Inventory Management Software are as follows:

Manually Managed Systems:

The name itself defines that these systems are managed manually. The complicated calculations are done by the formulas entered by the users. This type of inventory management system is best suited for startups or for businesses that have small scale operations and the enterprises which still have stock management on papers. The tracking and ordering of the restricted number of goods can be done easily by using these systems. Therefore with this type of system there are many chances of errors and inaccuracies in management due to the manual calculations.

Barcode Scanning System:

By using these systems business enterprises can easily track, manage hundred of items and can also easily fetch the data from the point of sale system. Barcode scanning systems are robust and efficient in terms of performance. As soon as the stock is received at the warehouse, the data gets updated automatically and the managers have access to the updated data. Therefore the tracking of stock movement or inventory from one warehouse to another and from a warehouse to a customer is made simple with the barcode technology.

Radio Frequency Systems:

This is one of the advanced technologies which has changed the business operations altogether. The term RFID stands for advanced radio frequency identification and this system is designed specifically for the businesses which have thousands of products moving in and out every day.

Development of Inventory Management Software:

For all the retail businesses and manufacturing businesses obtaining an efficient and robust Inventory Management Software is really important and thus its designing is the most crucial part. Developing a reliable and robust software which is capable of controlling and managing the inventory, ensures that there is no loss of goods due to theft or spoilage is really a challenging task. Therefore the factors that can be taken care while developing a software like this are:

• Proper planning and conceptualization.
• Analysing the complete requirement thoroughly.
• Building a blueprint or the flow chart.
• Implementation and Development.
• Ensure proper testing of all the modules are completed.
• Modules integration and deploying the software.
• Regular maintenance.

Cost of developing an Inventory Management Software:

The cost of inventory management software development completely relies on various features and functionalities that are integrated into it. Therefore it is very important to possess the basic knowledge of the business requirement. If you possess the basic knowledge of the business requirement then, in that case, you can conclude easily on whether you can earn profit from just a basic introductory system or would require a complete functional inventory management system integrated with the ERP software. Also, this knowledge will assist you in setting up a realistic budget.

If you are willing to develop inventory management software from the beginning the cost may fall around $15000 – $30,000. This cost is completely dependent upon the different features, technology, and functionalities that would be integrated into the software.

The cost of developing Inventory Management Software differs from geographical locations also. In America the development cost ranges from $200/hr whereas in India the development cost is $25 – $45/hr. Moreover, the development cost may differ depending on the developer’s experience too.

Hence if you are searching for a technology partner for develop a software like Inventory Management then Arka Softwares is the right choice for you. You can easily hire our experienced developers who can assist you well in developing software like Inventory Management.

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