Introduction
Electronic component inventory management and e-procurement professionals are experiencing new challenges with inevitable market shifts and increasing technological advancements. When acquiring many different types of electronic components and products, companies aim to ensure that expected cost profiles are met, and product delivery schedules are not delayed.
However, the most significant challenge for procurement processes in the last few years has been allocated parts, meaning a supply of components is not keeping pace with the increasing global demand.
Inventory quantities of parts on allocation are becoming highly valuable in some cases, seeing an increase in price and component lead times for critical electronic parts and products. All these developments are hindering procurement and electronic component inventory management as it becomes difficult to meet production schedules with desired margins and limits growth. Therefore, careful production planning, securing second sources, and many more electronic component inventory management strategies will be critical in the coming months.
This blog will list upcoming challenges and ways to prepare yourself against them beforehand and maintain your success in difficult times.
Inconsistent Tracking
Manual inventory tracking is a time-consuming and overwhelming process that can be vulnerable to errors.
This means not having a systematic way of tracking, such as manual tracking on different electronic components inventory software. You’re bound to make so many errors. Instead, a company should invest in a centralized inventory tracking system with accounting features and tools. Every business can benefit from a centralized inventory tracking system with accounting features.
Logistics
Electronic component inventory management operations are laborious and involve multiple steps, such as receiving, selecting, packing, and shipping. Therefore, it can become challenging to perform all of these tasks in the most efficient possible manner.
Reducing handling costs in a logistics facility, boosting productivity with storage systems, and leveraging the available surface area result from an efficient warehouse. Therefore, warehouses should be equipped with automated solutions rather than manual solutions.
Inaccurate Data
With the increasing demand comes a growing supply that businesses must manage effectively and quickly. They need to know the quantity and quality of their inventory stock in the blink of an eye.
However, businesses often fail to estimate the time needed to retrieve, clean, and upload the data to the warehouse, taking a large proportion of the overall production time.
For this reason, adopting new and innovative technology to keep up with the competition is vital, making such processes much more efficient and quicker.
Growing Demand
Customer demand is constantly growing and shifting. When businesses keep too much stock that they are not able to sell, they run the risk of creating an obsolete inventory. When they keep enough, they become able to complete customer orders. Adopting order strategies and technology for core items is highly significant for executing an inventory plan which can help compensate for changing and growing demand.
Manual Documentation
Businesses need to analyze and systematize a large amount of data. However, without automation, data entry can be done by taking notes, making files, and stocking physical documents. In short, managing inventory with paperwork and manual data entry takes time and effort, hampering progress and increasing human errors.
Increasing Competition
Supply chains are subject to unpredictable industry shifts, forcing the competition for raw materials. This can lead to a further dilemma between choosing high-demand products or materials and aiming to hold just enough inventory for cost control.
Insufficient Planning
Production planning is crucial for preventing delays in manufacturing, errors, and cost overruns. But conversely, insufficient planning can impact sales forecasts and project schedules. This is because, with comprehensive planning, businesses can predict product demands and cut-offs and be prepared to handle any sudden market shift.
Lack of Expertise
Every business should invest in an inventory manager. However, finding someone skilled
enough and adept at the latest technology and inventory strategy can take time and effort. Therefore, upgrading your electronic component inventory management platform with various features without capable management isn’t enough.
Out-dated Software
Businesses must integrate their existing business platforms to find the correct electronic components and inventory management software to support complex logistics. However, choosing from hundreds of electronic component inventory management solutions and mastering various features that require training and ongoing support can take time and effort.
Other than the most common management tools, such as the simple parts inventory software or the open source IT inventory management that many companies opt for, below are some of the solutions to consider when choosing the right electronic component inventory management for your business to counterbalance the challenges listed above.
Centralized Monitoring
For centralized monitoring/tracking, upgrading to tracking software that can provide automated features for reordering and e-procurement can be a good idea. In addition, such platforms can provide businesses with centralized, cloud-based databases for automatic inventory updates and real-time data backup.
Transparency
To overcome warehouse inefficiencies, warehouse reports and measures performance metrics like inventory turnover, order processing speed, and customer satisfaction, further sharing this data with staff and other suppliers.
Stock Auditing
Stock auditing processes, such as cycle counting, reduce human error and provide more accurate and real-time inventory data for managing cash flow. For example, when businesses organize audits by cycle count, they can create smaller inventory samples on a predictable schedule leading to more accurate financial input.
Demand Forecasting
If businesses adopt specific electronic component inventory management platforms, demand forecasting tools must be one of them. This tool integrates with accounting and sales data to help predict upcoming market demands and multiple scheduled orders depending on changing customer preferences, ongoing trends, and material availability.
Automated Documentation
Manual documentation is both a time-consuming and error-prone activity. Therefore, businesses need electronic components inventory management software, such as the simple parts inventory software, as manual inventory documentation replacement to give employees the proper inventory tools for the job and ease the workload to let them focus on other, more important, priority tasks.
Safety Stock
By maintaining safety stock, businesses can counteract disruptions in the supply chain and help manage increased lead times due to shifts in global competition for raw materials. Therefore, proper inventory planning allows operations to adapt to dynamic global supply chains.
Prior Planning
For prior planning, use an electronic component inventory management system with highly advanced demand forecasting and reporting to prioritize your inventory, considering the availability of the full inventory that generates the most customer demand.
Hire Experts
With technical and automated platforms comes higher responsibility and the need for extra oversight. As a result, businesses need to hire an electronic component inventory management expert with the right expertise to manage such operations. For instance, updated hiring criteria or contract in-person training and online support can help employees attain knowledge of the best practices for working with specialized electronic component inventory management software.
In other words, more than upgrading to a cloud-based electronic component inventory management platform is required to give all the latest features. Instead, the manager’s expertise and training are vital while it’s being implemented.
Update Software
By automating processes through different electronic components inventory software types, staff can focus on more critical tasks. In addition, after adopting automated platforms, such as the Mouser inventory management tool, it is possible to make modifications as needed instead of having to deal with counterbalancing any errors that can be made, saving time and money.
Try Out the Mouser Inventory Management Tool
One of the most sought-after electronic components inventory software, the Mouser inventory management tool is Mouser’s free, easy-to-use, web-based inventory system. It helps organizations and individuals worldwide manage and track their stock of electronic components and related supplies. The integrated iOS and Android apps enable users to scan barcodes and print bin labels directly from the application.
First created to help university-based customers manage their in-house inventories, The Mouser inventory management tool can be used by any organization or company, allowing its users to efficiently manage product quantity, and inventory reports and import current product inventory data from spreadsheets. The tool also provides check-in/check-out functionality, which helps organizations track shared tools such as scopes or soldering equipment.
Conclusion
Although electronic component inventory management can bring about many challenges primarily due to the ongoing and increasing technological advancements within the electronics industry, there are various solutions and different types of electronic components inventory software you can try out that will no doubt be helpful for the success of your business.
Don’t forget to check out any electronic components that boost the efficiency of your automated products and solutions, further helping your company reach its utmost potential.