| With millions, (probably more like billions) of products | | | | inventory, and eventually make their way into jewelry |
| available in the global market today it is easy for things | | | | worn by the end user. On the more practical side it |
| to get lost. To make this even more striking, note the | | | | may be more like tankers of crude oil and tonnages of |
| keyword is products. In the industrial age, all but | | | | iron ore that eventually become plastic and steel. |
| custom, handmade, or one of a kind items, are | | | | From iron ore to your next laptop, products and the |
| manufactured in factories that produce large and small | | | | raw materials to make them are tracked using |
| quantities, of individual products. These are made | | | | inventory management and tracking software. In real |
| available for distribution and sale to the world's | | | | practice each company in the chain uses its own |
| communities. That's a lot of stuff that can get lost! | | | | inventory tracking and software to make sure their |
| Inventory tracking is now a modern process utilizing | | | | products don't get lost in their part of the process. |
| inventory management software. Since the dawn of | | | | Gasp at the enormity of the production if one entity |
| the industrial age, mass-produced products have been | | | | tracked it all from start to finish! |
| counted and re-counted, and kept watch over, so the | | | | Since one mighty god of inventory tracking does not |
| things don't get lost or even stolen. With | | | | oversee the entire chain, the raw materials, |
| computerization this process has been honed to a fine | | | | components, and products, are handed off from one |
| edge. | | | | user to the next and unfortunately this is where there |
| The way that business is done today, is often with | | | | is the potential for things, still, to get lost. From company |
| many components that make up a product. Often | | | | to company the inventory tracking software used |
| businesses purchase materials to assemble their | | | | varies and companies also have different ideas about |
| products from other businesses. A garment | | | | what they need to keep watch over the most; |
| manufacturer does not make the fabrics it uses. | | | | different priorities, if you will. |
| These are made in a textile mill. To get down to an | | | | Within the entire chain, there is also that nasty human |
| awesome exponential level, the garment maker buys | | | | factor that has plagued civilization since the beginning |
| zippers that are made by zipper makers and the | | | | of time. People make mistakes and a guy may have |
| zipper makers themselves bought the fabric and metal | | | | forgotten to scan the bar code on that order that just |
| to make their zippers, from someone else too! Besides | | | | arrived, because he went to get coffee. Then the |
| the obvious route a product might take, directly from | | | | forklift operator whisked the palate away without |
| manufacture to consumer, (which is almost unheard | | | | thinking. The entire inventory tracking in the world won't |
| of) products and the raw materials to make other | | | | be able to locate that palate until next spring, when the |
| products are being transported and shipped from | | | | plant takes stock of its raw materials warehouse! |
| place to place in colossal amounts everyday. | | | | Humans, plain and simple, just mislay some things |
| Inventory tracking is the way this massive materials | | | | sometimes. |
| transportation activity is organized so things don't get | | | | About the thievery - sadly inventory tracking cannot |
| lost. Where inventory tracking begins in the chain is | | | | prevent theft of small products and whole truckloads |
| vague, but most likely originates in its most base form | | | | of goods. What inventory tracking can do though, is |
| with earthly raw materials. On the romantic side, | | | | alert a company to mysterious losses and allow the |
| picture uncut diamonds, extracted from diamond mines | | | | company to investigate the source of the problem, and |
| by miners, that are sorted into the diamond cutter's | | | | perhaps, put a stop to it. |