Tuesday, October 21. 2008
In previous blogs we have spelled out simple steps to put ZenVentory.com to work for you in regards to optimizing your inventory. Here at Ubiquia we always like to take it to the next level considering the entire supply chain. Whether it be creating a sales order, managing materials, to delivering the final product to your customer; we've got it covered. Take a look at your supply chain. What is one of the major contributing factors to a customer's disappointment? Is it inventory dwell or managing stock levels? Probably not. From my experience, it is late deliveries that drive customer service levels. Consider this; if you were able to buy a product at a deep discount but that product showed up two weeks late and you as the customer were no able to call the seller and get a good ETA, would you reorder? Again, probably not. My point is this: not only does ZenVentory.com deliver a powerful tool to manage your entire order life cycle but it has the capability to put the critical visibility on each shipment that your customer expects and deserves. Through the fulfillment module you are able to allocate inventory, choose a carrier, choose a method of payment or account number, and track the shipment to delivery. Through this, you are not only providing proactive management of the customer order but you can also evaluate the carriers by measuring on time performance. We all know that this is a critical rating in the transportation world. As a matter of fact most of the common carriers sell based on this rating. Being able to quantify and measure the carrier performance in real time has many financial benefits. Air services are guaranteed and if the carrier misses the delivery time, you are owed a credit. Additionally, if the carriers are missing the mark with on time delivery, this provides a great negotiation tool when the dreaded rate increases come around every year. All of this is easily indentified with the tools we have developed. To sum this up, transportation management is a critical part of supply chain management as well as customer and supplier relationship management. ZenVentory.com developed these tools to keep your company in touch and proactive in managing not only your inventory but your supply chain - order to delivery. Use the tools; trust the tools and put your mind at ease - ZenVentory.com
Monday, October 13. 2008
Zenventory Offers Ways To Recession Proof Inventory Management
- Cash Is King – When times are hard, expenses are inevitable, and money is tight; it is time to develop a strategic plan to reduce expenses and keep the cash flowing. Below are three examples of how Zenventory.com will assist in cash flow management.
- Annual Consumption Value – Aging inventory can cause one of the biggest hurdles in cash flow. By performing a simple ABC analysis, you can quickly determine the annual consumption value of each product.
- Focus Marketing – through anABC analysis, the marketing team can focus the sales efforts on products that are profitable and quick movers.
- Distribution Optimization – Create a distribution network that is diverse and synergized with vendors. The shipping world of today is purely volume based and partnering with a trusted business is not a bad idea. Additionally, consider your shipping modes and packaging material by working with shipping cost specialist who drive results and costs saving. Global Parcel Service is an excellent choice and will provide personalize solutions for your supply chain the make “cents.”
- Inventory Management – The first step is to liquidate the stock with the lowest value and restrict purchasing abilities through Zenventory.com’s administrative tools. However, use caution not to disrupt the consumer buying habits: If a popular low profit item is generally orders in conjunction with another product, be sure to provide a equal alternative that provides the customer satisfaction and makes you profits.
- Vendor analysis – One of the many tools Zenventory.com provides is a vendor management tools which display economical order quantities for each vendor that may supply a particular SKU. Choose the vendor that provides the best price at the lowest quantity. When analyzing your vendors, don’t be afraid to think outside of the comfort zone and search and negotiate a lower cost.
- Focus on core competencies – Avoid processes that cause you to loose focus of your mission and value proposition to the customer. Creating spreadsheets with conditional formatting is a waste of your time and hiring someone to do it will only increase your labor costs. Zenventory.com makes inventory management easy and seamless. No more late hours mapping data to spreadsheet fields and adding conditional colors to analyze the health of your organization. Zenventory.com does all of this for you. It is a quick and simple step during the setup process. Remember, Zenventory is software as a service: Not a solution that requires a robust IT staff and 24/7 monitoring…again, we do all this for you.
Keep it simple, effortless, lean, and profitable. In other words, keep it ZEN.
Friday, October 3. 2008
ABC analysis is a business technique that can be applied to any business unit whether it is inventory, suppliers, or even employees. In regards to inventory, it is used as a supply chain technique that is the building block of efficient inventory control. A categorization system is used much like the 80/20 rule of Pareto's Law (or analysis). The typical model of categorization or "banding" is annual consumption. The analytical goal is to identify the SKU's that will have a significant impact on overall inventory costs as well as identifying the SKU's that will require different controls and management style. A look at the basic “rules:” Annual Consumption Value = (Qty Consumed x Cost of Item)
Classify the results into three bands (A, B, or C)
- “A” Band = inventory that accounts for 80% of total value
- “B” Band = inventory that accounts for 15% of total value
- “C” Band = inventory that accounts for 5% of total value
It is important to remember that even though the “A” band accounts for 80% of the total value, it may be the smallest portion of the total volume. Typical Results/Action Items as a result of the analysis: - “A” class items are an important part of the product line. Due to the high value it will be identified that these items require close monitoring and tight management controls. Frequent cycle counts, security, low reorder levels, short lead time supplier, and Just In Time (JIT) replenishment are a few good actions to take for “A” items.
- “B” class items have a lower need to tight controls and generally only require standard inventory management practices. Standard action to be taken is monthly or quarterly cycle counts combined with an annual inventory count.
- “C” class items require the least amount of controls and in some situations are the promotional “freebees” that are accompanied by the high two bands.
Sounds easy right?? This can tend to be a loaded question. The ABC analysis is a basic practice of inventory and supply management BUT, it requires an efficient software package that produces data with integrity and quality. For example, Zenventory is an inventory management software solution that does a nice job of managing inventory using hybrids of the ABC analysis approach. Without easy to use software providing good data quality, the basic ABC analysis quickly becomes convoluted and diluted with unnecessary data elements. 10 ways Zenventory.com can help? - Notify buyer of optimal reorder quantities for price breaks to keep overall inventory costs low
- Set, evaluate and adjust reorder levels based on turnover reporting tools
- Live, up to the minute stock level report on dashboard
- Color coded inventory screens to quickly identify stock level
- Avoidance of costly stock outs as well as the need to carry excess safety stock
- Identify item specific leakage risks based on ABC banding
- Set up warehouse bin locations based on item dwell and management controls needed.
- Set and evaluate supplier velocity and efficiency
- Reduce errors by seamlessly moving through the entire order cycle: Purchasing through Order Fulfillment
- Fully integrate with current Financial Management Software to perform live detailed financial analysis on inventory costs.
Put the ZEN in your inventory management practices by using an easy to integrate, user friendly, mobile, solution that provides optimization tools developed from industry needs rather than the out of touch models of yesterday – Zenventory.com
Wednesday, October 1. 2008
It's easy to find out if a package has been delivered to your organization. Simply go to the corresponding carrier's site (UPS/FedEx/DHL et al) and enter the tracking number. You're in a bit of a quandary though if you don't know the tracking number. If you're in a large geographically dispersed, multi-campus, or multi-floor organization it may be difficult to know what happened to the package once it's received by the receiving department.
In some instances your organmization may receive other peoples property. In other words property not owned by the organization. This could be employee property or in the case of hotels and resorts, guest property. In these cases it is vital that you can show some type of accountability quickly and accurately. Certain organizations require that all packages are tracked internally for security purposes. The process in the past has been a tedious and inaccurate set of hand logs, spread sheets, and notifications via phone and email. Hand logging is inefficient, time consuming and often inaccurate. Hand logs and spreadsheets are difficult to share with staff so that they can conduct their own research on the whereabouts of a package.
The SQBX inbound tracking solution makes receiving, logging, delivering, and research a breeze. First, the system is web based and not loaded onto a desktop or an internal network. This minimizes the workload on your internal computer support staff and virtually eliminates the need for on-site service agents. Customer support is nearly instantaneous.
Secondly, you have real-time visibility of the receiving/delivery process no matter where you are as long as long as you have Internet access and the credentials to use the system. Researching a package becomes quick and easy for anyone with access to the system. This reduces calls to the mail room and empowers your staff to track the packages internally as they currently would track a UPS or FedEx package on-line.
Thirdly, the system is mobile. Through the use of our wireless hand held devices you can take the system on the road with you. The devices can be connected to a cell phone network which will enable the user to take the system to make an important delivery off site and still provide that real time visibility that is required inside the walls of your organization.
Finally, with unlimited users and unlimited transactions you can be sure that every one that needs to be on the system can be without price prohibiting the deal. You can download and archive the receipts for your records or we can simply keep them on the system for as long as you choose.
Now lets discuss some of the different types of industries that currently use one form or another of Inbound Package Tracking.
HOTELS, CASINOS, AND RESORTS
Customer Service: The name of the game when it comes with these types of organizations. One lost package can be the difference of thousands of dollars in repeat business.
Speed: Speed is vital when answering the guest question "Did YOU receive MY package yet?" Through the global visibility that SQBX provides, virtually any hotel staff member can assist the guest with their inquiry. This question does not necessarily have to actually get to the mail room if the system is used properly.
Profit Center: In many hospitality organizations a fee is charged to the guest for the handling of the package. Through the use of SQBX these surcharges can be quickly and accurately applied to the guest bill just like a drink would be at the pool.
Accountability: Capturing the signature of the recipient or recording where the package was left lessens the chances for a misplaced package. This provides the accountability necessary when handling the valuable property of your guests.
SPORTS TEAMS
Valuable Merchandise: When dealing with professional athletes the value of a piece of equipment is not just how much it costs, but how well it will help the athlete perform. If an organization lost a catchers mitt that was to be used in tonight's game, what do you think the ramifications would be? By tracking all inbound items for the players this will give the organization the ability to reduce unnecessary stress.
On the Road. As you all know, your favorite team is not always at home. Since the team is away that does not mean that they have to fore go their tracking requirements. Mobile solutions such as SQBX can be taken to the visiting stadium,s hotels and meeting rooms that teams use on their road trips. Track packages home or away, inside and out through our connection to the Broad Band network.
Security. By quickly scanning package information you can verify which one of your players received a package and who it came from. In the event of a security problem you will quickly be able to do the research as to the sender and recipient of the package in question. This will provide a safer environment for all of your staff.
These are just two of the many industries that currently use our SQBX inbound package tracking and receiving system. Please stay tuned for my next blog on the application as it applies to the CONFERENCE/CONVENTION CENTERS and COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
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