The question you should ask yourself about your equipment is not “If it breaks…?” or “Will it break?” but rather “When will it break?” – because everything breaks.
The problem many companies have in the situation where a piece of their equipment breaks is that they were/are missing two things: a preventative maintenance plan and the correct amount of parts inventory to fix the breakage.
How can you reduce down time when something inevitably breaks? You can have a good parts inventory system.
That means that you must have the parts you need to repair your equipment on-hand at all times. And in a time where many companies are trying to reduce inventory as much as possible, we realize this seems counter intuitive, but remember that downtime equals lost revenue, so a little extra inventory is worth it.
You’re also running a business, which means having inventory on on-hand to make/supply your customers with the products they purchase from you. This inventory also needs to be well maintained – usually separately – so you can keep your customers satisfied.
Essentially, inventory is the most important thing you have. Keeping all that organized might seem difficult and overwhelming, but with the right software, it doesn’t have to be.
The right software is completely customizable to your business and can be programmed to help you maintain best practices within your company and within your industry. The right software will combine your disparate systems into a comprehensive whole, automate your processes to reduce human error, and create reports that offer you better information so you can make better decisions.
The benefits of inventory software are too numerous to list, but here are a few more ways that it can enhance your processes:
• By tracking pricing, cost, stock, and order information for each item and location
• By monitoring inventory status for each item
• By making information like serial/lot locations, bin numbers, bills of materials, etc. easily accessible
So whether you manage 30,000 parts or 300,000, you’ll need a solid inventory control system in place to stay efficient and, more importantly, profitable.
Acumen Information Solutions is an authorized reseller of Sage Software, and for excellent inventory control we recommend Sage 300 ERP. You can read more about this software here, or you can contact us today to find out more – and let us help you build your business acumen.
