The manufacturing inventory management Excel sheet is used to maintain the database of items stored in the house of materials. These Excel sheets allow you to keep track of how much stock you have at any given point in time. Some of these programs also come with barcode printing software that is capable of printing barcodes on paper either for performance record-keeping or for tracking purposes in connecting to the scanning devices.
Manufacturing Inventory Software Apps is a cloud based enterprise inventory management module that provides a platform to optimize the inventory movement in order to meet the customer demand. Our Manufacturing Inventory Software Apps can be used by your warehouse staff to update the quantity and location of goods, and get notified if there is a need to reorder goods or cancel an order. It also allows you to see all the products your company sells, and their cost, profit and margin.
What is Inventory Management?
Inventory isn’t just a warehouse of “things needed for business”. It is a dynamic and critical part of the production effort itself. Inventory is as much an asset like a piece of equipment and must be managed with the same level of care. In fact, inventory value can often exceed the value of production equipment and is an important capitalized asset.
Inventory includes materials that need to be processed or assembled and can include consumables such as chemical solutions needed for processing as well as complete sub-assemblies like circuit boards, housings, and other items. Inventory management also stretches from raw materials through finished goods, and depending on the industry or mode of production, may include work in process (WIP).
Inventory management is an integral part of overall supply chain management and consists of the planning and ordering process for materials and components needed to produce finished goods, storage of the items, the organization of the warehouse, and organizational processes like inventory receipt and handling procedures, stock lot tracking, documentation of stock movements, order picking for shipment, and much more.
Because modern manufacturing covers a large range of complexity and must keep track of an enormous number of Stock Keeping Units, there is more than one way of managing inventory. To be effective, narrow-focused inventory management software or broader manufacturing ERP software are needed. Also, methods such as Just in Time (JIT), Materials Requirement Planning (MRP), or Reorder Point/Reorder Quantity (ROP/ROQ) are some of the popular approaches that could be applied to become more effective. What is used will depend on the type of the business.
The Importance of Inventory Management
The best way to understand the importance of inventory and the importance of having a dependable and accurate system in place to manage it is to look at the extremes – stock-outs and overages. But here lies one of the failings of “old-school” inventory management that relies on spreadsheets, paper counting, and manual inputs. For while stock-outs and overages account for the extremes, there is little middle ground, and companies can find themselves veering from one extreme to another.
The reason for this back and forth between “too much” and “not enough” highlights the dangers of manual inventory management but also highlights the importance of good, dependable, accurate, and real-time inventory management. And while this is a drain on any manufacturer or distributor, it can be especially destructive to the cash flow and overall, health of SMBs.
Good inventory management strikes a balance in that “thin” middle ground to help a company reduce costs. With the right balance of materials, cash is only expended for what is needed, and even then, it is expended as close as possible to the point of invoice.
That balance allows companies to fulfill orders and drives customer satisfaction. Customers can get what they want when they want it without having to seek alternate sources. This provides better customer service and strong brand recognition.
But good inventory management is also important to the long-term financial health of a business. By knowing with a high degree of accuracy the trends and seasonal aspects of inventory, companies can find pathways to better cost management and innovation for new products, offer value added services, and negotiate more lucrative supply contracts with vendors.
Fishbowl Inventory
An inventory application designed by Fishbowl Inventory for startups and small organizations. Demo Pricing Write a Review
As companies grow they find that the QuickBooks Inventory control capabilities are no longer sufficient for their inventory control needs. They expand beyond multiple locations, the number of products they stock increases, they move into manufacturing, they need wireless bar coding, etc. This is what Fishbowl Inventory provides.
Essentially, when a company integrates their package of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier or Enterprise) with Fishbowl Inventory, Fishbowl will take over all the inventory control functions from QuickBooks. The QuickBooks inventory functions are turned off and parts are no longer tracked in QuickBooks.
Multi-Location Part Tracking
Location Groups/Classes
Using Fishbowl’s Location Groups function you will be able to track inventory across multiple warehouses, retail outlets, and delivery trucks or anyplace you store your inventory. Inventory valuation, sales, parts and quantities can then be reported on based on the location group they belong to. These location groups then correspond to the various classes within QuickBooks that you define.
Multiple Location Part Tracking
Fishbowl Inventory provides true multi-location part tracking across multiple locations both within a given warehouse and at multiple warehouses. A location can be set up as a store, a division, or even sections of a warehouse. It is easily defined to best fit your business needs. Simply click on the part number in question and everywhere that part is located, anywhere in the system, at multiple locations within a warehouse, or across multiple warehouses, it is immediately displayed on your screen.
Inventory Locations
If your warehouse is divided into aisles, rows and shelves Fishbowl can automatically generate a matrix of locations for you without having to define each location individually. Simply create a new location. Specify the desired number of aisles, rows and shelves and Fishbowl will create all the desired storage locations. Then simply move the desired inventory into the locations and Fishbowl will track where your inventory is stored.
Auto ROP/Auto PO
How much inventory should you carry? Using the sales/usage history of any given part in inventory, Fishbowl’s Auto ROP (Reorder Point) function will calculate the proper reorder point and order-up-to levels for any of your products. Once an item reaches the reorder point Fishbowl Inventory automatically creates a PO for that item, to the preferred vendor, in the proper quantity and at the correct price. You can then issue the PO to the vendor or alter it first and then issue it. Any price changes by the vendor are tracked in the Fishbowl database.
Part Status
Fishbowl Inventory tracks the location and status of every item you have in stock, whether it’s in a single location or in multiple locations. This information is available at the click of a button in multiple modules throughout Fishbowl Inventory.
Part Monitor
Every company has parts that move more than others. Why not have an interactive reporting of what those parts are and when you’ll need more? With the Monitor you’ll see whether your biggest movers are approaching critical levels or whether operations can continue to run without incident. In addition, you’ll see how many of one part has been allocated to the different points in the consumption process. No more inventory shortages on your most consumed parts. Fishbowl Inventory’s part Monitor makes it easy to see when it’s time to re-order to keep sales moving.
Cycle Counting
Cycle Counting is a technique that allows the user to count inventory at a limited number of locations within your warehouse and have that information entered in real time with minimal disruption to your regular flow of business. Simply pick a part to check, count the quantity, enter it into Fishbowl Inventory, and the inventory is immediately updated to the correct amount.
Order Management: Pick, Pack and Ship
Pick Lists: Specify Locations / Serial Numbers / Lot Numbers, Etc
Does your Sales Order double as your Pick List? Do you lose time and money trying to find where specific parts are located? The Fishbowl Inventory Picking module lists the part number, description, location and bin number in an easily understood and readable format. And for those parts with lot and/or serial numbers the user can pick the default numbers that Fishbowl Inventory provides or pick the parts that are more readily accessible and then enter the correct numbers when the order is readied for shipping.
UPS and FedEx Integration
Both UPS’ World Ship and FedEx’s Ship Manager integrate into Fishbowl Inventory. Simply enter in the Sales Order number and Fishbowl Inventory automatically populates your shipping software to print out your labels, weight and tracking numbers based on what you are shipping.
Order Management: Sales and Purchasing
Sales Order/Quotes
Fishbowl’s Inventory’s Sales Order modules allows the user to enter customers, products or QuickLists all from easily accessed drop-down lists. Double click on any line item and you can quickly see what is in stock and what is back-ordered. Any pricing discounts for specific customer/product combinations are remembered and automatically entered as the parts are entered onto the Sales Order. Add notes to the Sales Order as a whole or to each line item individually. And if you need a quote simply save it as a quote and then when the customer agrees to the price simply issue it as an official Sales Order and you’re on your way.
Part Status
Fishbowl Inventory tracks the location and status of every item you have in stock, whether it’s in a single location or in multiple locations. This information is available at the click of a button in multiple modules throughout Fishbowl Inventory.
Today View
When starting your day you shouldn’t have to search through every module to find out what’s waiting to be done within the company. To address this problem Fishbowl’s Today View brings all your in process functions onto one screen. At a glance, you’ll see outstanding Sales Orders, Purchase Orders waiting to be received, Inventory needing to be picked, and Material ready to be shipped. Each item in the Today View is linked to its respective module so you can navigate right to the task with one click. No more time wasted in figuring out where to start the day.
Configurator
If you sell configurable products that change from one customer to the next then chances are you understand the difficulty in selling, producing and properly tracking these type of products. This is what the Configurator was designed for. For example, let’s say you sell a computer called System1A. But the customer wants a bigger hard drive and more RAM. With Fishbowl’s Configurator you can define a configurable Bill of Materials so that when the customer places the order, the salesman can select the desired options from lists directly within the Sales Order. Any additional charges for premium features are automatically added to the price for the product and added to the Sales Order. Upon issuing the Sales Order, a Work Order for that configured product is automatically created. Just pick, pack and ship the finished item and you’re done.
Quick Lists
Do you have regular customers that buy the same list of items every time they order from you? Fishbowl’s QuickLists feature allows you to give that list a name so that the next time that customer purchases you won’t have to re-populate the Sales Order from scratch. You can then edit the Sales Order anyway you like.
Variable Pricing
Fishbowl Inventory has an extensive pricing module that allows the user to define as many pricing schemas as needed (by customer or customer group) and to have the pricing automatically applied as the Sales Order is created. Define them by a percentage discount or a dollar amount. Simply go to the pricing module, and select new. The Pricing Wizard will walk you through the easy process.
Manage Purchasing and Vendor Relationships
Fishbowl Inventory automatically saves and organizes critical part and Vendor information, and displays it in an easy to use, helpful fashion. What vendors have you purchased from in the past? Who gave you the best deal or turn-around time? Fishbowl Inventory makes purchasing a snap. And when you hit the reorder point on a particular item then Fishbowl will issue the Purchase Order to the correct vendor.
Sales Order to Purchase Order Conversion
Convert any Sales Order to a Purchase Order at the touch of a button. If the item(s) have been purchased before then Fishbowl will remember the previous price and will automatically enter that price into the Purchase Order as the default.
Multiple Ship-to Addresses
In the real world, you sell to companies that may have multiple ship-to addresses. Fishbowl Inventory allows you to use multiple ship-to addresses for your customers, and for vendors that drop ship, you can enter multiple ship to addresses for where the product is to be sent.
Point of Sale
Do you sell directly to the public through your own walk-in store? With the Fishbowl Inventory Point Of Sale you not only have full-scale inventory control but you also have the ability to use a wedge style bar code scanner (like what you see at any retail store) to wand-in all your bar-coded products and create a Sales Order on the fly without having to enter anything in by hand. Simply wand all the products in and Fishbowl Inventory calculates the total, reduces your inventory control, and creates a receipt.
Part Definition and Details
Serialized Parts, Lot Number, Revision Levels, Expiration Dates
If you sell expensive products, if you produce product in batches, if your products are perishable or the government requires tracking of the product you sell, then you need more detailed part tracking than QuickBooks currently provides. Fishbowl Inventory provides true serial number tracking where the part number does not change with each serial number and the history of the unique serialized part is tracked from the moment it enters the system to the moment it leaves. The same is true for lot numbers where a quantity of a given part needs to be tracked as a group. Revision levels for new model parts and Expiration dates for those parts that have a shelf life. And if that isn’t sufficient Fishbowl Inventory also includes unlimited custom fields for each part or product you stock.
Bill of Materials / Kitting
The Fishbowl Inventory BOM module is defined in the Parts module and has no limit on the number of parts, sub-assemblies, or types of parts included. Simply define the BOM within the Parts module, with the correct quantities, and you’re ready to begin manufacturing. If you wish to manufacture immediately then select the Manufacture button and the required parts are immediately pulled from inventory and the finished part is complete.
Unit of Measure Conversions
Create your own Unit of Measure conversions and equations with the built-in Unit of Measure Wizard. There is no limit on the number of conversions you can have. Buy by the pallet, box, case, each, etc. Store in a different unit of measure. Sell by still another unit of measure and have Fishbowl store specific prices for each unit of measure so that you don’t have to remember what to charge your customer if they buy by the pallet instead of by the box. Fishbowl will makes unit of measure conversions easy.
Ordoro: Best for ecommerce
4.5
Starting from $499.00/mo.
- Multichannel selling features and dropshipping capabilities
- Vendor management features for maximum supply chain efficiency
Data as of 11/12/21. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
It’s hard to practice good inventory management techniques when you’re juggling multiple sales channels. Fortunately, Ordoro makes multichannel selling easier. With Ordoro, you can create master products within your inventory system, allowing you to update descriptions, images, branding, and more across all (or some of) your sales channels at your discretion.
Ordoro also offers vendor management features that make dropshipping a breeze. For instance, you can assign vendors to specific products in your catalogue. Then, anytime a customer orders those items, Ordoro can automatically send the order to the appropriate vendor, thereby cutting out the middleman (you), maximizing supply chain efficiency and ensuring your customers get their items as quickly as possible.
We also like that Ordoro makes nontraditional inventory management strategy possible. For instance, you can opt to strategically oversell your goods or limit the number of instock items visible to your customers—both of which create the illusion of scarcity and motivate your potential buyers to complete their purchase. Ultimately, this helps you turn a better profit and avoid storing expensive excess inventory.
Conclusion
Manufacturing Inventory Software is needed to maximize inventory turns. Since companies are operating in a global market, it is required to optimize all inventory data and distribution activities in order to meet the customer’s expectations. By implementing the right enterprise manufacturing software you will be able to meaningfully reduce costs of manufacturing and fulfillment. This is possible because good software accelerates order processing and reduces overall supply chain costs by reduced ordering errors, purchase order processing errors, excessive stock on hand and other cost related problems.