Inventory Tracking Method in a Company and Its Contribution to Success of the Business

Introduction

There are many ways of tracking inventory in a company. Initially, companies were using manual methods of inventory control. However, with the introduction and development of technology, inventory control software and systems have emerged and made the work of tracking inventory for companies easier. Today, many companies are using inventory tracking systems and software such as bar codes, stock book, radio tags, and Kanban among others (Eijndhoven, 2012). The essay will discuss the approach in which a selected company tracks its inventory and ways in which that method has contributed to the success/failure of that business.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Chosen Company

The selected organization for the discussion is the Process Control Outlet Division II (PCO Div. II). It is a private company that deals with computer repair services and based in Baytown, Texas. PCO was established and incorporated in the year 1995 in Texas (Manta Media Inc., n.d). Statistics show that the PCO Div. II is a trusted company by the process control and electronics industry in Texas to provide electronics and process control products and services to customers. PCO Div. II is a trusted dealer in safety barriers as well as boiler controllers for computer monitors and power supplies (Wasp Barcode Technologies, 2016). PCO Div. II serves a wide range of customers including private companies, government organizations, commercial enterprises and the Fortune 500 Companies (PCO Div. II, Inc., 2018).

How PCO Tracks its Inventory

PCO is a company that deals with many different types of stock items. The company resulted to using a new approach of tracking inventory after realizing that the sales representatives had a lot of work of going back to the warehouse to review the availability of items after the placement of new orders. It was a hectic practice that consumed a lot of time for the sales representatives and causing a slow flow of supplies in the company. The employees were getting frustrated most of the times because of the inefficiencies that came with the approach of reviewing the availability of items in the warehouse after getting new orders. There was wastage of time and many times the company risked going out of stock for the main products. Customers were frustrated customers when the company could not fulfill the orders.

The business challenge to PCO Div. II required reviewing the approach to tracking inventory items in the company. The management opted to change to implement a new system that will make it fast for sales representatives in checking whether there are available for the new orders and provide fast feedback to the customers. Therefore, PCO Div. II Company adopted a barcode inventory tracking method to track its stock in the warehouse (Wasp Barcode Technologies, 2016).

The use of barcodes as an inventory tracking entails giving a label for every stock item stored by the company. The label provides information about the products including the name, location, price and restocks level. The code of each stock is usually scanned using a barcode reader held by hand (Ilie-Zudor, Kemeny, van Blommestein, Monostori, & van der Meulen, 2011). The company uses a cash register where the items are scanned when selling or when storing in the warehouse. A computer program is used to analyze the scanned item codes and provide information on how many products have been sold and the number in the warehouse. The system allows a company to keep track of inventory effectively. The barcode approach of inventory tracking is highly profitable to businesses because of low costs of implementation and operations (Preradovic & Karmakar, 2010; Jong & Stracke, 2014).

PCO Div. II uses the inventory software approach of tracking inventory. The use of barcode approach to monitoring inventory enables the company to have a database of inventory management. The PCO management uses the database in customizing it to fit the inventory tracking needs. In adapting to the new approach of tracking inventory, PCO Div. II Company bought and installed the barcode inventory control software into the company inventory control system (Wasp Barcode Technologies, 2016). The barcode method was preferred because it is easy to use by every employee and provides real-time information to the sales representatives in carrying out their work. PCO Div. II Company purchased the barcode software and the WDT2200 mobile device as a barcode scanner and a tool for updating the inventory field in the computer system and sync warehouse data with the computer. Using the barcode software approach, PCO Div. II Company can know the number of items in stock, the location, the movement of inventory and resell points. It is easy for employees to review the inventory items in the warehouse every day without the need of going back every time a new order is made by a customer.

How the Inventory Tracking Method has contributed to the Success of the Business

The use of the barcode software method for tracking inventory has contributed to the success of the company in different ways. After its implementation, the PCO Div. II as experienced increases in profits because of reduced costs of inventory operations. Only one employee is needed in managing the inventory in the warehouse unlike earlier the company employed two employees for inventory management. The reduction in activities costs saves the company $680 per week. In fact, immediately after starting to use the barcode software system in the company, the inventory operation costs have decreased by half. The business was able to recover the implementation costs within the first month of using the new inventory tracking method. Until today, PCO uses the barcode inventory tracking method to control its stock at the warehouse. The successful experience of PCO Div. II supports the views of Preradovic and Karmakar (2010) and Jong and Stracke (2014) as they stated that the barcode method of inventory tracking enables a business to gain more profits since the implementation and operation costs are low.

The use of the barcode software method of tracking inventory has enabled PCO Div. II to save $35,000 every year and cut costs of inventory operations by 50% (Wasp Barcode Technologies, 2016). The sales have increased each year because sales representatives have been able to determine if ordered items are in stock instantly from their tables. The company inventory management accuracy has improved as it is easy to audit the barcode software system for stock verification. The Wasp WDT2200 barcode scanner has been a useful tool in scanning items on the shelf every month and enabling smooth reconciliation of inventory counts for every product in the warehouse. PCO Div. II Company can make orders for inventory quickly and also determine the fast moving items in the warehouse. The company no longer runs out of stock when customers make requests. Therefore, there is an adequate response to customers, fulfill more orders and increase in sales every year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the PCO Div. II is one of the private companies that use the new technologies in tracking inventory. It uses the barcode software approach to monitoring stock levels for the business. The use of the barcode software by the PCO Div. II Company is a strategy that has helped the organization to achieve success over the years. Effective control of inventory through better tracking of items that are in the warehouse, the fast-moving, and the sold ones as well as reorder level has made it easy for PCO Div. II to realize the potential of implementing a proper inventory tracking and control system in an organization. Compared to an earlier performance, PCO Div. II is doing better than when it was using the past approach to inventory tracking. The success of the business explains the importance of inventory tracking using an effective method that supports current technology for a successful business. PCO Div. II Company no longer holds a lot of inventory that is not moving and tying capital for the enterprise. The increase in sales and saving on labor costs explain a growing company through more investments into the warehouse. Responding to customer needs fast means that PCO Div. II is achieving more success regarding customer loyalty and references. Therefore, tracking inventory using the barcode software has contributed to the success of the PCO Div. II Company about the reduction of inventory operations costs, more savings annually and fast response to customers.

References

Eijndhoven, F. (2012). Inventory management of the technical warehouse. Unilever. Retrieved from http://essay.utwente.nl/62155/1/MSc_F_van_Eijndhoven.pdf

Illie-Zedor, E., Kemeny, Z., van Blommestein, F., Monostori, L., & van der Meulen, A. (2011). A survey of applications and requirements of unique identification systems and RFID techniques. Computers in Industry, 62(3), 227-252.

Jong, J., & Stracke, T. (2014) Usage of RFID technology in the internal material handling process in the automotive industry. Linnaeus University.

Manta Media Inc. (n.d). Process Control Outlet. Manta. Retrieved from https://www.manta.com/c/mm2y2wz/process-control-outlet PCO Div. II, Inc. (2018). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.pco2.com/aboutus.asp

Preradovic, S., & Karmakar, N. (2010). Chipless RFID: barcode of the future. Microwave Magazine, IEEE, 11(7), 87-97.

Wasp Barcode Technologies. (2016). Industrial parts inventory tracking case study: Process Control Outlet - Wasp Barcode. Case Studies. Retrieved from http://www.waspbarcode.com/case-studies/inventory-control/process-control-outlet