Advanced electronic component inventory management solutions effectively allow companies to manage their inventory and supply chains. Such systems efficiently record every movement of inventory and are designed to prioritize inventory accuracy and cost reduction.
Tailored according to the inventory trend analysis in 2023, the list below provides the top 10 trends in inventory management that help shape electronic component inventory management systems for businesses that want to maintain their competitive edge in the ever-evolving tech world by finding the best solutions for management challenges.
Better Inventory Tracking
Inventory tracking has become one of the most popular forms of modern inventory management. And this popularity is not unfounded. Opting for new and improved types of inventory tracking devices and systems can help businesses benefit their clients in significant ways.
For instance, with better inventory tracking, such as a GIS inventory tracker, trackers can significantly help businesses know where certain items are at any given time and if an item has been stolen or transferred to another part of the warehouse.
Furthermore, the types of benefits such tracking devices can provide come together with new applications run by big data and competitive design.
Implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)
Virtual electronic component inventory management of physical assets is a practice that’s becoming more a part of our business and personal lives in the future, and both AI and ML systems help track physical items, helping companies evolve their insights significantly.
AI and ML use new and innovative technologies for stocking shops for product-based business operations. While AI helps businesses with inventory handling and order fulfillment, portraying what goes on in an enterprise context and enabling valuable insights to business leaders, ML aids data scientists and other professionals in training data and applying it to ongoing operations through convergence.
IoT for Complete Connectivity
The Internet of Things (IoT) integrates cloud technology to allow computers to communicate with one another. In addition, such devices provide location monitoring and inventory tracking.
Products tagged with IoT devices help provide more efficient storage and distribution, tracking inventory, and route planning to identify where and when goods are delayed in transit.
Connected Omnichannel Services
Connected omnichannel services are one of the most popular trends regarding the future of inventory management. Accessing the warehouse, supply chains, and distribution data, connected omnichannel services necessitate a highly connected system, referring to offering multiple customer channels for purchasing goods, including returns, after-sales service, and deliveries. Within this connected network, the manufacturers and suppliers can easily communicate with one another between different systems. For instance, a customer can look up product prices online from whichever store they prefer and have it verified accordingly. In addition, they can know the status of their orders and receive the relevant information regarding any potential delays or information updates.
Warehouse Automation
Warehouse electronic component inventory management automation can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction. For instance, with automated machinery, businesses can spend less on employee wages since a single robot can do the job of multiple employees with higher efficiency and at a lower cost.
Improvements in robotics create automation possibilities, which decreases costs as equipment and software become more available.
Primary examples of warehouse automation are AVGs and AMRs.
AVGs and AMRs
Automated vehicles can be divided into two classes: automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
When operated, AGVs follow a fixed path defined by a guide technology such as a track, embedded wire, or a line of magnetic tape, which helps it to transport products, parts, and raw materials across the warehouse.
On the other hand, AMRs do not require a fixed track to navigate. Instead, AMRs comprise sensors for following path commands transmitted by a central server or managing a map and navigation information with updates from the server. However, both AVGs and AMRs are equally significant for greater automation.
Third-Party Logistics
Not all businesses can afford electronic component inventory management methods that are constantly evolving due to the ongoing trends in inventory management, requiring additional specialized software, equipment, and warehouse designs.
Although public warehouses may offer businesses a place to store inventory, they must coordinate product movement and manage packages and delivery. For this reason, outsourcing to a third-party logistics specialist can help eliminate the need for costly capital investments, providing the necessary resources on a finite budget, as a third-party logistics provider considers such issues when providing its services.
Common examples of third-party logistics providers are courier companies, transportation companies, and/or freight forwarders, among others.
Safety Stock
Although many companies have been keeping safety stock as plan B, increasing customer demands and unexpected interruptions, have raised the significance of having a safety stock on hand.
Safety stock is excess inventory intentionally kept as insurance to protect businesses against production and/or sales changes. Or in cases where machinery malfunctions or supply chains are interrupted. In such instances, companies can continue selling products and delivering timely orders.
Furthermore, safety stocks can help when customer demand regarding a particular product increases, depleting standard inventory levels. This way, businesses can continue production and exploit the demand spike.
Sustainable Supply Chains
Technological changes in electronic component inventory management systems allow for more excellent communication across electronic component inventory management networks.
With the increasing amount of automated machinery, there has been a rise in environmental issues. Due to this rise in technological advancements, businesses need to counterbalance such ecological problems.
Therefore, one of the upcoming trends in inventory management is the sustainability of the supply chain, becoming an inevitable aspect to consider to lower the environmental and human impact that products can have through the supply chain, from product sourcing to production, stocking, delivery, and transportation.
Digital Twinning
One of the most technologically advanced forms of modern inventory management, the digital twinning process involves a virtual copy of a given physical product, asset, or system that looks or behaves the same way as its physical counterpart. In other words, the digital twin serves as a comprehensive reference in which users can explore the digital twin to learn more about the physical twin’s size, shape, etc.
This way, retailers can analyze specific data and replicate processes to help them predict the potential performances of particular devices or components and any possible issues the physical product may endure.
In this technologically advancing world, digital twinning is a massive part of the solution since transparency is becoming increasingly important in business organizations. It can provide much more clarity than the physical twin and is updated to reflect the latter accurately.
Conclusion
With the help of a statistical inventory trend analysis, this article sheds light on the most modern inventory management solutions and how you can adopt and assimilate them into your business.
The future of electronic component inventory management consists of many up-and-coming trends that will significantly benefit each business that can take advantage of them if used correctly and with the proper electronic component inventory management techniques.