Any size of business can suffer from issues with inventory as shrinkage accounts for approximately 1.5{34f3ed944e4a7026e0aa413275b4f522db244163693f0ce08b14e6b73ced177d} of all sales. As a result, shrinkage can occur as the result of administrative errors or customer theft. Therefore, stock control is important in operations management as it affects a business’s ability to grow, not only in terms of profit and loss, but in customer satisfaction too.
Avoiding Shrinkage
In order to reduce shrinkage to expand your business, you need to make sure to check all the stock inwards. The first task in stock control involves checking on the delivered items against what you order from a supplier. Since it is simpler to assume that all the numbers match up, as much as two percent of stock orders are not packed correctly.
If you only assume you have all the correct numbers of products, you can find yourself short-stocked when you try to deliver a customer’s order. Another problem can arise too. You may actually have more stock on-hand than what is needed, thereby making it difficult for you to know when to lower prices or order more stock.
Taking a Course in Stock and Inventory Control
An operations management course in stock and inventory control is the ideal course to take for any operations manager who wants to run a well-ordered facility or warehouse. This type of course is open to warehouse managers as well as procurement and purchasing professionals, general managers of SMEs, operations managers, and supply chain specialists.
Learning Objectives
The learning objectives for this type of course include the following:
- Eliminating wasteful costs and activities, thereby reducing shrinkage.
- Efficiently recording and managing inventory expenses.
- Understanding and applying certain inventory control strategies.
- Understanding the basics of stores accounting.
- Maximising overall efficiency and resource planning activities.
- Establishing streamlined inventory management controls.
- Reducing the costs associated with inventory obsolescence.
- Keeping better records overall.
Students follow a curriculum that covers the basics of inventory, replenishment guidelines and inventory planning, stock identification and recording processes, inventory control, and strategic management of inventory of stock.
An Enhanced Understanding of the Inventory Process
After this type of training, operational managers or inventory control specialists will be more cognizant with the storing of stock, product labelling, establishing minimum stock levels, managing returns, and performing stock checks.
For example, with respect to labelling stocks, you need to make sure that any order for an item is packed correctly. Stock products come in various sizes. Therefore, training in inventory control enables you to manage your packing slips so the right sizes are correctly packed.
In addition, training makes you more aware of how to store your stock. For instance, if you have packages that are similar in colour or are similar products in general, you need to make sure the items are not stored side-by-side as delivery errors could occur.
If you want to manage a tightly-run ship, signing up for coursework in stock and inventory control procedures can prove to be a boon to your career.
