No one enjoys taking inventory. It’s a time-consuming
process that is an unfortunate necessity when you have physical product to
sell. While our inventory tips certainly aren’t going to make taking inventory fun,
they will help you save time so you can get back to other tasks more quickly.
Tip 1: Put everything
in a specific location. This adds to prep time but makes counting go much
faster. Make sure all your products are marked and labeled so that when you
begin counting the process can move smoothly. Hunting around your warehouse for
stray items is not what you want to be doing at the end of an already long day
of inventory.
Tip 2: Mark
everything as you count it. A lot of people are going to be counting a lot
of items, and without proper labeling employees may waste time counting
products that are already accounted for. Invest in brightly colored tags or
labels that you don’t use in your facility for anything except inventory. By
having labeling supplies exclusively for inventory, you alleviate confusion and
waste less time.
Tip 3: Consider who
will do the counting carefully. Taking an accurate count of your inventory
is extremely important. This is why you want experienced employees who know
your products to be the ones doing the counting. This is also important because
employees who are not familiar with a product may not know what unit of measure
they should be using. If nothing else, you want at least a few experienced
employees helping those employees with less experience.
Tip 4: Create a map
of your facility. Once everything is laced in marked sections, create a
visual so that it is easy to find each of these marked locations. Ideally you
would sketch out all of your shelves and racks. This makes it easier to assign
people to different sections, and can also act as a checklist. Sections of the
map can be marked the day of inventory as each section is completed.
Tip 5: When it comes
to small supplies, weigh them, don’t count them. No one has time to sit
down and count every single piece of loose fill, individual poly bags, or
hooks. For items like this, use a scale and weigh them instead. It’s not worth
the time to count all these items, unless you already have a system in place.
Do you have any time-saving inventory tips to share? Let us
know in the comments!
