In this task your inventory personnel will conduct a stock count.
Education:
Inventory Control Guide - Stock Counts
Screen Help - Cycle Count Codes
Training Task:
Perform a stock count using fictitious numbers.
Stock Count Guidelines
Use cycle counting for bulk materials with variable usage
Many bulk raw materials such as plastics are difficult to track at job level and have usage quantities that vary from job to job. The only practical way to issue such materials to jobs is to accept the BOM usage quantity by default. A cycle counting schedule should be applied to such items so that periodic stock counts are made to adjust on hand quantities to reflect actual stock on hand.
Avoid mass physical inventories
Unless required for auditing or regulatory purposes, avoid conducting mass physical inventories where you freeze operations and count your entire inventory. Mass physical inventories are highly disruptive to operations and notoriously error-prone. Instead, implement a cycle counting program where you count selected items, item categories, or location groups on a periodic basis. Small cycle counts are relatively easy to conduct and can be performed with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.
Do not avoid using locations
Do not avoid locations by using a single dummy location that has no meaning. Use multiple locations so that stock quantities are tracked against actual locations. Using multiple locations reduces errors, increases inventory accuracy, and saves time by facilitating job issuing, order picking, and stock counts.
Common Questions
Is it necessary to use locations?
It is a big mistake to avoid locations by using a single “dummy” location that has no meaningful use. Once locations are set up and item location assignments are made, locations are easy to use because of pre-fill behavior and provide many benefits, including facilitating stock counts, finding stock in overflow locations, enhancing issuing and picking accuracy, and using receiving and inspection locations. Avoiding locations consumes far more time finding stock and tracking down errors than it does to incorporate them into your workflow processes.
Would bar coding improve inventory accuracy and efficiency?
Bar coding improves inventory accuracy and efficiency in retail and distribution environments, but is inefficient and unnecessary in manufacturing environments where batch updating is much more practical.
Bar coding is well suited for retail and distribution environments where inventory is a simple in-and-out transaction and items are labeled with bar codes that reflect different package sizes.
In a manufacturing environment, however, many items, especially raw materials, are not labeled for bar code scanning. Additionally, package sizes are irrelevant because most components and raw materials are broken down and stored in bulk for issuing to jobs. Implementing any type of shop-wide bar coding system would require a massive commitment to item and location labeling in order to achieve a consistent scanning capability.
The other difference between retail/distribution and manufacturing is the average number of line items involved per transaction. Assembly jobs can have hundreds of components where it is not practical to scan each and every item. Accordingly, we’ve designed our multi-line transaction screens – PO Receipts, Job Issues, and Order Picking – for pre-filling where the majority of line items are processed with a single click.
Inventory accuracy can be achieved easily and effectively without bar coding by using locations, issuing material in real time by means of issue or dispatch lists, cycle counting, and by immediately fixing BOM and stock discrepancies when encountered.
