| Every large company knows the critical importance of | | | | medium sized businesses - whether or not to make a |
| having an efficient system to keep track of stock on | | | | significant change of this sort comes down to return |
| hand. Whether a retail store, wholesale operation, | | | | on investment. Will a new stock control system |
| warehouse, large service provider, or manufacturer, | | | | improve the company's efficiency? Will orders be filled |
| the problem of stock control is very similar: it is | | | | more quickly with fewer delays or errors? Will the |
| important to know what products or materials are on | | | | stock control system require significant on-going |
| hand. Without this knowledge products don't get sold, | | | | maintenance? Will new people have to be hired or |
| orders don't get filled,customers don't get serviced, and | | | | complex new skills taught to existing staff in order to |
| employees end up standing around with nothing to do. | | | | run the system? |
| The use of barcodes is at the heart of most stock | | | | This makes it very important to carefully evaluate the |
| control systems. All assets are identified with | | | | available options. As in all areas of business |
| barcodes, barcode printers are used to generate labels | | | | management, there has been a virtual explosion of |
| for incoming items, barcode scanners are used to read | | | | new software development in the field of stock |
| and enter information about individual items. All of this | | | | control and inventory management. Systems have |
| information is integrated using stock control software | | | | been streamlined and made more intuitive. They use |
| running on the company's computer system. With such | | | | familiar tools that most office personnel are now |
| a system automation is the key to increased | | | | familiar with - ordinary PCs running standard operating |
| efficiency and manual data entry is minimized. | | | | systems, accessing commonly used databases |
| On the other hand, a typical small business often lacks | | | | through a familiar-looking interface. |
| a sophisticated stock control system. There are many | | | | The greatest advantage of this new generation of |
| reasons for this. Perhaps the managers feel putting in | | | | stock control software is its ease of use. Small |
| such a system would be overkill. The company may | | | | business owners typically do not have time to waste |
| not have enough product lines, or the job of maintaining | | | | on new systems that are difficult to install or that |
| a system would inevitably fall to already overworked | | | | require skills their key staff do not possess. That |
| managers. Or perhaps they have simply not taken the | | | | makes it crucial that the stock control package they |
| time to review the potential advantages of such a | | | | purchase be easy to install and implement, and even |
| system. | | | | easier to maintain and use on a day-to-day basis. |
| As always in business - and in particular with small and | | | | |