Alleviating inventory stockout

When facing stockout issues with indirect materials and consumable inventories, it's essential to conduct a thorough check to tackle the root causes. Here are some key areas to focus on:

- Ensure that daily cycle counts are performed, especially for items transacted in the previous period.

- Reconcile on-hand inventory with virtual inventory regularly.

- Create daily deficiency reports and generate replenishment orders accordingly.

- Scan items' barcodes and receivers' badge numbers before issuance to avoid errors.

- Verify that items issued as 'pack' are recorded as such, and not as 'each,' and vice versa.

- Guard against data entry errors like fat fingering.

- Assign appropriate min/max levels to prevent items from becoming inactive in the system.

- Update min/max levels based on recent or anticipated consumption patterns.

- Keep a close eye on open and back orders with vendors.

- Have contingency plans for sourcing long-lead items.

- Ensure timely input of delivered or returned items (c-ret and v-ret) into the system.

- Properly configure delivery lockers/vending machines (e.g. badge reading, quantity restrictions, etc.) for efficient operations.

- Maintain an error/issue log to track incidents, their root causes, and remedials.

- Lastly, prioritize efforts to reduce process vulnerabilities through continuous improvement methodologies like Kaizen and Six-Sigma.

Addressing these points can help streamline inventory management processes and mitigate stockout challenges effectively.

#InventoryManagement #SupplyChain #ProcessImprovement