Do not confuse with "warehouse management" and correctly understand "inventory control".
- 2018-04-19 14:05
- Storage management inventory control
When it comes to the so-called "inventory control", many people think of it as "warehouse management", which is actually a big misunderstanding.
?
The traditional narrow sense holds that inventory control is mainly aimed at the inventory, data processing, storage and distribution of the materials in the warehouse. Through the implementation of anticorrosion, temperature and humidity control and other means to keep the storage of physical inventory in the best state. This is just a form of inventory control, or it can be defined as physical inventory control. Then, how to understand the inventory control from a broad perspective? Inventory control should be to achieve the company's financial operation goals, especially the cash flow operation, by optimizing the whole demand and the supply chain management process (DSCM), setting up the ERP control strategy reasonably, supplemented by the corresponding information processing means and tools, so as to achieve the guarantee and On the premise of time delivery, reduce inventory level as much as possible, reduce inventory backlog and risk of scrapping and devaluation. In this sense, physical inventory control is only a means to realize the financial goals of the company, or is only a necessary part of the whole inventory control. From the point of view of organizational function, physical inventory control is mainly the responsibility of the warehouse management department, and the generalized storage control should be the whole demand and supply chain management department. And even the responsibility of the company as a whole.
?
Why do so many people still understand inventory control only in physical inventory control? The following two reasons can not be ignored:
?
First, our enterprises do not attach importance to inventory control. In particular, those who have relatively good profits will seldom consider the problem of inventory turnover as long as they earn money. Inventory control is simply understood as warehousing management. Unless there is no money to spend, it is possible for someone to look at the inventory problem, and the results are often very simple, the purchase is much more, or the work of the storage department is not done well.
?
Second, the misleading of ERP, especially the misleading of some homemade ERP. Some simple entry software is called ERP, and the company's so-called ERP can reduce the amount of inventory, and it seems that inventory control can be done by their small software. Even if the world's ERP giants like SAP and BAAN, they also define the simple storage management functions as "inventory management" or "inventory control" in their functional modules. This makes it impossible for us to understand what inventory control is, and what is called inventory control.
?
In fact, understanding inventory control from a broad perspective should include the following points:
First, the fundamental purpose of inventory control. We know that the two key assessment indicators (KPI) of the so-called world class manufacturing are customer satisfaction and inventory turnover, which is actually the fundamental purpose of inventory control.
?
Second, the means of inventory control. The increase in inventory turnover is far from enough by the so-called physical inventory control. It should be the output of the large process of the whole demand and supply chain management. In addition to the process of storage management, the larger part also includes the pretest and order processing, production planning and control, and material planning. And procurement control, inventory planning and forecasting, and strategies for distribution and delivery of finished products, raw materials, and even customs management processes. And the whole process of demand and supply chain management is the management of information flow and capital flow. That is to say, the stock itself is the whole link of the whole demand and supply management process. In order to achieve the fundamental purpose of inventory control, it is necessary to control the stock in every link, rather than just manage the physical inventory that has already arrived.
?
Third. The organizational structure and assessment of inventory control. Since inventory control is the output of the whole demand and supply chain management process, to realize the fundamental purpose of inventory control must have a reasonable organizational structure adapted to the process. Until now, we can find that many enterprises have only one purchasing department, and the purchasing department is under the warehouse. This is far from keeping up with the demand for inventory control. From the analysis of the management process of demand and supply chain, we know that the procurement and storage management are the typical executive departments, and the control of inventory should be mainly prevented. The executive department is difficult to "prevent inventory". The reason is very simple, and their assessment indicators are largely to ensure supply (production, customers). How to set up reasonable demand and supply chain management process according to the actual situation of the enterprise, so as to set up a reasonable organization structure with it, is a problem worthy of our many enterprises to discuss.
?
Source: Dalian lift Logistics Park