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The technological advancement has already started bringing changes to the way inventory management is conducted and with even more changes in consumer habits and global distribution networks in 2024, the situation will not be different. With such a push for efficiency and accuracy in business the management of inventories has emerged as an even bigger issue.
Read through the blog to unravel several inventory problems and solutions and learn how Addverb presents several automation solutions that help you overcome these inventory management challenges and gain a competitive edge over others.
Inaccurate Inventory Tracking
It is one of the most difficult inventory management challenges. It requires an advanced management system, which helps with real-time inventory tracking, enhances operational efficiency, and streamlines workflow.
Certain materials or products will go unsold or unused; they might grow outdated or past their expiration date. These products or materials tend to amass over time since inventory managers give them little thought.
Solution: Implement Advanced Tracking Technologies with Addverb
Optimus from Addverb is a highly configurable WMS that uses innovative techniques to improve your warehouses’ operating efficiency. By improving material flows and resource usage, Optimus guarantees efficient operations and increased production. It efficiently manages the logistics of incoming and outgoing cargo, facilitating the smooth movement of commodities inside the warehouse.
Overstocking and Stockouts
One of the most common inventory management problems is a few unsold products, which can impact your warehouse operations and drastically affect profitability. Poor stock control is primarily the result of manual operations’ inefficiencies, which give rise to this predicament. Keeping an excessive amount of inventory can be just as detrimental as saving too little since it can negatively impact your cash flow and lead to issues with loss or storage.
Solution: Utilise Smart Inventory Planning with Addverb’s Warehouse Management System
Optimus minimises stockouts and overstocks by offering precise and instantaneous visibility into stock levels. To enhance productivity, the system effectively balances workloads and controls resources. Furthermore, Optimus’s scalability and adaptability are guaranteed by its simple reconfiguration to suit the needs of individual sites.
READ MORE: Optimise your inventory with Addverb’s Warehouse Management System
Poor Warehouse Layout
A badly planned warehouse arrangement severely hampered inventory management. Ineffective use of available space might result in increased storage expenses, and trouble finding things fast is one of the common inventory management problems. Accessibility issues contribute to delays in order fulfilment, increasing labour costs and impacting customer satisfaction. Moreover, inaccurate inventory tracking due to disorganisation can result in stock discrepancies.
Solution: Optimise Warehouse Layout with Robotics
Our adaptable multi-carton picking robot, Veloce, meets the demanding storage requirements of varying-sized cartons, crates, and totes and helps to combat these inventory management challenges. This flexible approach maximises available space and improves the effectiveness of goods-to-person transactions.
READ MORE: Warehouse Automation with Autonomous Mobile Robots
Inefficient Order Fulfilment
It is one of the standard inventory management challenges that emerge from delayed picking, packing, and sorting processes. It can cause poor inventory visibility and inadequate workflow optimisation.
Solution: Adopt a Modern Warehouse Control System
Mobinity, Addverb’s intelligent warehouse control system, effectively manages and optimises material flows across automation and material handling equipment (MHE) while dynamically directing and integrating all warehouse activities. Mobinity provides real-time visibility and control, guaranteeing adequate product flow and boosting efficiency.
Supply Chain Disruptions
In reverse logistics, inefficiencies can increase labour costs by up to 25% and negatively impact profit margins in e-commerce, where returns can reach 25–40%. Customer satisfaction is at stake due to these common inventory management challenges.
Solution: Enhance Supply Chain Resilience with Automation
Reverse logistics automation at Addverb reduces errors, lowers costs, and improves customer happiness by streamlining return handling with real-time visibility and workflow control.
READ MORE: How Warehouse Automation Revolutionises Efficiency and Productivity in Logistics
Changing Demand
Customer demand is constantly changing, which affects inventory storage. If you have too much, you can have dead stock; if you have too little, you won’t be able to meet customer demand.
Solution: Top-notch Technology to plan inventory
Concinity is an easy-to-use Warehouse Execution System (WES) created by Addverb to effectively manage and coordinate material and information flow across various automation systems. It provides sophisticated capabilities to optimise warehouse operations.
Identifying Materials in Incorrect Locations
When there is no proper system or technology to track products or inventory, it can be cumbersome and require a lot of manual labour to allocate the products, thus increasing the scope of human errors, which denotes one of the biggest inventory management problems.
Solution: Equip Mobile Robots
Our adaptable mobile robot, Dynamo, performs exceptionally well in warehouse material handling, picking, and sorting applications.
Inefficient Pallet Transportation
Conventional pallet transportation techniques in manufacturing facilities and warehouses frequently have inefficiencies, such as slow movement, restricted routing flexibility, and inconsistent throughput.
Solution: Implement Rail Guided Vehicles
Travect, our Rail-Guided Vehicle (RGV), provides quick, adaptable, and dependable movement on a fixed-floor twin rail loop, revolutionising pallet transportation. It minimises handling times, increases overall operational efficiency, and optimises throughput in warehouses.
Inefficient Management of Robot Fleets
It involves challenges like improper coordination, inadequate duty allocation, and restricted operational transparency. These problems result in lower output, higher operating expenses, and trouble achieving performance goals.
Solution: Adopt a Sustainable Warehouse Fleet Management System
A reliable option for the centralised management of numerous robot fleets is Addverb’s Movect Fleet Management System. Movect optimises the allocation of tasks to robots, maximising overall throughput and productivity.
READ MORE: A Guide to 5 Types of Mobile Robots and How They’re Used
Outdated Warehouse Picking Methods
Conventional warehouse picking techniques that rely on paper lists or handheld scanners are more likely to result in errors and slower fulfilment rates, which lowers overall operational productivity.
Solution: Zesty Voice-Directed Picking Technology
Zesty provides a paperless and hands-free solution with voice-directed picking technology. It increases productivity and accuracy in warehouse operations by assisting employees with tasks like cross-docking, returns processing, and piece and full-case picking.
Inefficient Warehouse Storage
Traditional warehouse systems often need more efficiency and capacity to store large volumes, leading to congestion and ineffective inventory management.
Solution: Cruiser 360, Automated 4 way Pallet Shuttle
Cruiser 360, an automated solution that boosts warehouse productivity and increases inventory control and storage capacity, provides pallet transportation and storage in high-density racking systems.
READ MORE: Addverb’s Cruiser 360
Labour Shortages and Training Issues
Warehouses need help to retain a trained workforce due to high employee turnover rates and labour shortages. Operations are further burdened by the time-consuming and expensive nature of onboarding new personnel.
Solution: Utilise Automation to Mitigate Labor Shortages
By implementing automation technology, one may retain productivity, streamline processes, and become less dependent on human labour. Because automated systems can efficiently handle complicated jobs, automation also reduces the need for considerable training.
Conclusion
We hope you gained several insights into inventory management problems and solutions and how Addverb can help you overcome these with its top-notch robotic solutions and warehouse management systems and maintain efficiency, accuracy, and reliability in supply chain management operations.
FAQ
How can I improve inventory accuracy?
Implement automated tracking systems like RFID and barcode scanning to reduce human error.
What technologies can help with demand forecasting?
AI-driven predictive analytics and machine learning models can enhance demand forecasting accuracy.
How do I balance overstocking and stockouts?
Use just-in-time inventory management and real-time data analysis to maintain optimal stock levels.
How can technology integration ease inventory management?
Integrating ERP systems with WMS can streamline processes and provide real-time visibility into inventory.
What cost-saving measures are effective in inventory management?
Bulk purchasing, inventory turnover optimization, and using technology to reduce manual errors can save costs.
How do customer expectations influence inventory management?
High customer expectations require faster order fulfillment and accurate inventory tracking to meet demand.
Founded in 2016, Addverb offers complete robotics solutions for warehouse and industrial automation, with a strong global presence through its subsidiaries worldwide. The company provides a range of in-house automation products, including Autonomous Mobile Robots, ASRS, and sorting technologies. It serves over 350+ clients, including well-known companies such as Coca-Cola, Amazon, and DHL.
