5 tips to get the most out of cycle counting

Improving inventory accuracy through cycle counting – as easy as ABC

Our Head of Inventory Management, Ryan Morrison, continues the theme of how to optimise lab operations by shining the spotlight on focus areas of biotech inventory best practice. The latest software for managing your inventory is making it easier than ever to gain control and make business decisions based on real-time data. However, even the most powerful of solutions are at the mercy of human error and non-compliance. Such mistakes can result in financial losses from missing or expired stock, wasted effort and may even result in production grinding to a halt.

So how can you verify your inventory data to get the best out of your software? In addition to putting warehouse access controls in place, most of us are familiar with a big stock take, but few of us relish the prospect of shutting down the warehouse or working out-of-hours to achieve it. Is there a way to reduce human error and nail inventory accuracy without disrupting business operations? For many businesses, the answer is yes – Cycle Counting.

Cycle Counting is a process used to audit inventory, where small portions of inventory are counted at a specific time. Cycle Counting has been shown to have many advantages over traditional stocktaking, not least of which is the improvement of inventory accuracy and early detection of problems.

Get the most from Cycle Counting with these five tips.

1. Count little and often

Avoid shutdown! Cycle Counting involves dedicating a small amount of time each day or week to counting a small sub-set of your inventory. This can be done at the start of the day and is less prone to error. Don’t be tempted to count too many products. Errors are far more likely to be made on larger counts than on smaller ones. Small regular counts have been shown to lead to greater stock accuracy.

2. Use ABC cycle counting

Tailor the frequency of counting to your most important products. Sort your inventory into three main categories based on how frequently you wish to count them. The highest value, throughput or highest risk products should be assigned as Category A and counted more frequently. Commonly, Category A is given to the top 70% of inventory value, category B the next 15% and Category C the bottom 15%.

3. Improve accuracy through barcode scanning

Batch information and expiry are critical for GMP Life Science businesses, but easy to get wrong while counting! Incorporating barcode scanning into your cycle counting process can have an immediate impact on stock accuracy and add speed to your counting process. Read more about barcode scanning in the biotech sector here: https://www.amiciprocurement.com/posts/barcoding-in-the-biotech-sector/

4. Monitor count variance

Set a target for inventory accuracy and track over time. It is important to track both – a single variance with high financial value is just as important as multiple variances on count quantity. Trends should be captured, investigated, and used to identify products or locations which could benefit from additional counting.

5. Take action!

One of the major benefits of Cycle Counting is that discrepancies in stock counts should be spotted early-on, and the root-cause investigated in real-time before expenses are incurred later. However, it remains important to monitor targets and trends in count variance over time and act upon any underlying issues. Discrepancies are usually linked back to human error and processes may need to be tightened in high risk areas.

Amici’s inventory management system enables cycle counting and barcoding, as part of a wider inventory management best practice approach. To find out more about how our biotech purchasing and inventory management services can help you, please contact Chris Roarty or Katy Woodburn , or visit www.amiciprocurement.com.