Managing inventory effectively is a crucial aspect of running any business that deals with stock, regardless of its size or industry. However, these organizations can often face challenges, which can lead to issues such as overstocking, understocking, and inaccurate forecasts, which subsequently impact operations and the customer experience. Instead of struggling to meet demand and being caught off-guard by hurdles, inventory-based businesses can turn to StockIQ to solve their inventory problems.
StockIQ is a robust, advanced supply chain planning suite that is designed to help inventory-based businesses run efficiently, improve forecast accuracy, and reduce inventory levels. It does this through accurate forecasting, next-generation algorithms, and features that help you with everything from analytics to replenishment.
Here are some common inventory problems your organization can face, and how StockIQ helps you overcome them.
7 Common Inventory Problems Solved by StockIQ
With that in mind, here are some of the common inventory problems businesses today frequently face, and how StockIQ solves them.
1. Overstocking
Overstocking, or carrying too much inventory on-hand, can be problematic for businesses for several reasons. Firstly, it can lead to increased carrying costs, such as holding and storage costs. It also ties up capital in unsold goods. Additionally, overstocking can lead to the risk of products becoming outdated or expiring, especially in industries with rapid technological advancements or seasonal trends, or which operate with perishable items.
StockIQ helps solve this problem by providing you with accurate forecasts and analytics, so you always know how much inventory to keep on hand, and when to expect fluctuations (such as seasonality).
2. Understocking and Stockouts
Similarly to overstocking, understocking and stockouts can also lead to cascading problems for businesses. Not having enough inventory to meet demand (or running out of it entirely) can lead to delays for customers, which can negatively impact the customer experience. Stockouts can also lead to missed sales opportunities, as customers turn to competitors with available products. With the insights from StockIQ, you can minimize and avoid these situations.
3. Inaccurate Forecasting
Inaccurate forecasts can be troublesome: they can result in stock imbalances, can contribute to disruptions in service, and can lead to lost revenue opportunities or excess holding costs. Inaccurate forecasts can also cause delays in procurement and production, and lead to higher carrying costs (from unnecessary inventory buildup).
StockIQ’s advanced demand forecasting algorithm improves your inventory management and supply chain operations and has been tested more than 1 billion times to ensure it generates accurate, sensible forecasts. It can work with different forecast hierarchies, take special events into account, and track historical promotion performance to manage planned future promotions.
4. Replenishment Roadblocks
Replenishment can be difficult to keep on track. You need to schedule every order and adjust for real-world variables. When this is done manually, it can lead to human error, discrepancies in stock levels, and can be impractical for scalability. It can also reduce agility, leaving a business slow to respond to market changes (due to manual replenishment processes).
Instead, StockIQ’s replenishment planning features can help optimize the replenishment process. Generate purchase orders, transfer orders, and work orders with one click in StockIQ’s Purchasing module. There’s also automatic order generation, where StockIQ generates an entire order schedule for every item you have, every day so that you’re always ready to order. Replenishment optimization with StockIQ can also automatically adjust for real-world factors such as order cycle intervals, holidays, and order/delivery schedules from your suppliers.
5. Inefficient Processes
Inventory-based organizations can be riddled with inefficient processes, which can be optimized by using StockIQ. For example, many organizations use manual data entry processes, which can lead to errors, delays, and increased labor costs. Meanwhile, inefficient workflows can slow down the order fulfillment process, affecting customer satisfaction and hindering overall operational efficiency. StockIQ improves workflows and automates many aspects of data entry, so your business operates at its peak potential.
Furthermore, a lack of integration between inventory management and other business systems can result in data silos, hindering visibility, communication, and coordination. StockIQ democratizes information and data, so all relevant stakeholders can access it and understand key takeaways at a glance.
6. Shortage of Useful Data
When organizations lack data and insights into their operations, they are operating “in the dark,” without critical information needed for strategic decision-making. Instead, StockIQ provides you with inventory analytics, which can improve your inventory management efficiency and reduce operational costs.
These insights provide you with clear answers to your most pressing questions. For example, you’ll know what is stocked out (and will know why, so you can prevent it from happening again). You’ll also know where there’s excess inventory, and will get suggestions for balance transfers. Additionally, StockIQ includes a full MRP engine to handle bills of any depth, so you can accurately represent dependencies between assemblies and components, and between hub and spoke warehouses.
7. Lack of Visibility and Adaptability
Inventory-based operations often lack visibility into their supply chain, which can hinder decision-making and performance. This can be mitigated with StockIQ, which offers tools that help provide optimal visibility. For example, you get live inventory updates, which provide you with real-time visibility into inventory levels, enabling quick and informed decision-making. You can also track the movements of your inventory, enhancing overall visibility.
The real-time data from StockIQ also empowers you to make tactical decisions promptly, enabling you to respond quickly to changes in supply or demand. This can improve flexibility and adaptability.
StockIQ: Your One-Stop-Shop Supply Chain Solution
Inventory-based businesses face an uphill battle: they need to operate in competitive landscapes, be able to scale, and have to adapt to rapidly changing customer needs. Instead of letting inventory problems get the best of you, let StockIQ take it from here. StockIQ is designed to improve inventory efficiency by providing you with intelligent tools to enhance visibility.
Improve turns and service levels while reducing stockouts and excess, and leave inventory problems in the past. Contact us today to learn more.
