Apr 19, 2022

Ensuring that your warehouse is properly managed is a task that many businesses struggle with as demands continue to change. Recent studies conducted by BlueStar suggest that the biggest problem in warehousing is inventory and cycle counting. This may be tracked to many varying factors such as a lack of updated inventory software, inefficient storage space, higher SKU count, and putaway bottlenecks. When these issues are left unchecked, warehouses run the risk of exacerbating operational expenses and wasting valuable employee time. In fact, when left unchecked, issues like out-of-stocks, delays, and bottlenecks can inflate operational costs by 62%. 

To further complicate matters, studies suggest that a mere 6% of companies report complete visibility of their supply chain. Without cost-effective technology solutions that improve inventory management and enhance visibility, warehouses are forced to operate with a skewed vision of their complete inventory count, which leads to increased downtime, stagnated deliveries, and unhappy consumers.  With this in mind, it’s no surprise that 34% of businesses have shipped an order late due to selling a product that wasn’t in stock, which breaks consumer trust. To curb these consequences, today’s distribution centers are streamlining inventory management and picking with the following solutions, ultimately enhancing the entire order fulfillment process. 

1. Effectively track your assets to reduce loss - By efficiently tracking your assets, you ensure you know exactly where your assets are. This improves visibility because if your workers are more knowledgeable on an asset’s information, they can make proper adjustments and more insightful decisions. Choose Heartland’s barcode hardware solutions to put the power of effective barcoding technology for inventory management in the hands of your workers. 
   
2. Capture and monitor data in real-time - Enhancing your inventory management and picking with efficient asset tracking has to include capturing and monitoring data. If your current barcode capture solutions cannot quickly and efficiently capture barcode data, the entire order fulfillment process suffers. Luckily, through Heartland, advanced technology solutions can capture data in real-time. This grants your workers instant access to important information they need to keep workflows fast so delivery times are met.  
   
3. Optimize asset utilization - Properly utilizing your assets ensures proper shipping and delivery to your customers. This improves picking and inventory management because when your workers properly manage assets, they can effectively communicate which specific items need to be retrieved from inventory storage. Solutions like Heartland’s operational asset assessments help reduce asset loss, improve utilization, and lifetime value. 

Managing your inventory and cycle counting operations can be streamlined with effective hardware solutions. Contact us at Heartland to learn more about solutions that optimize order fulfillment.