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As time travels along there will be many changes in inventory management, and if you want your company to remain profitable, you will need to change along with the times. For instance, companies need to maintain higher inventories than they did in the past in order to satisfy customers.
One of the reasons why this happens is because companies have higher storage capacity, and thus customers expect them to have more inventory on hand. This deviates from times in the past when most companies only maintained enough inventory to satisfy their current needs. They often didn’t even order raw products except to fulfill the needs of current production schedules.
As the demands of customers increased so did the need for more efficient inventory management. In order to keep up with the competition companies have had to hire fulfillment companies and find new inventory management controls and procedures. Some of the new procedures include maintaining higher reorder points and maintaining more raw materials inventory at any given moment in order to accommodate those customers who may have a last minute order. In addition, many companies are still ordering raw materials only when they are ready to use them for production, so there are more instances of companies needing raw materials on short notice.
The implementation of inventory management controls and procedures are important parts of the success of any company. If you are unable to exercise proper inventory management you will be unable to maintain the inventory necessary to satisfy customer needs. Customer needs are the backbone of any company whether production-oriented or service-oriented; if your inventory management does not provide for any goods necessary to meet those needs your company will fail. Even service-oriented businesses need inventory management control. They need specific tools and supplies to perform the services they provide to customers.
If you are finding your company is not maintaining the proper inventory levels it is time to reevaluate your inventory management procedures in order to determine who is responsible for the lack of control. It doesn’t matter whether you have too little or too much inventory at any given time. Inventory management can help you maintain the proper levels to meet customer demands without having excessive goods on hand for extended periods. While it is understandable you sometimes need to order minimum quantities from suppliers in order to receive the best discounts, these should be the only times when your ordering point should exceed current needs. When you do need to overstock your inventory take advantage of the flexible storage offered by a fulfillment center to get the space you need at a lower cost.
