Friday 25 May 2012

Bar Coding And Inventory Management

Bar coding is an effective inventory management tool that can be incorporated into your company’s processes for increased levels of efficiency at all levels. Bar coding essentially consists of a bar coding device that is able to recognize and also create unique barcodes for different products. Most businesses these days are adopting bar coding as a method of professionalized inventory management as there is a decreased level of errors associated with bar coding as compared to manually entering in the products being received or sent for sale. Maintaining a count of inventory at all stages is an important component of inventory management systems and generally requires a significant amount of manpower. Bar coding thus serves as a good replacement to manual methods of record keeping as there are no chances of error in this automated technique.

There is a high level of accuracy associated with bar coding and you are able to exercise better control and supervision over all your products. The best part about bar coding is that it helps to automatically enter the appropriate information into inventory management software as soon as a product is scanned through a bar code sensor leading to an update of all your systems. This helps point out the exact location of your products which can prove to be quite useful whenever you need to find out where a certain item is in the supply chain.

There are several other benefits that accrue to companies using bar coding as a technique of inventory management. There is a significant decrease in the count of lost or pilfered goods as an effective track of inventory can be maintained in the supply chain. It also becomes easier to fix responsibility and accountability of the employees under whom such losses may have occurred. Before going in for a bar coding system, you should conduct a cost benefit analysis of whether the installation of such a system is going to be economically viable for your company in the long run or not. The quantity and kind of products that you deal in should be considered while making this decision. If the variety of goods that you deal in is quite large, a bar coding system can help alleviate many problems associated with handling and recording a massive inventory.

For more information about inventory management, visit McLane Logistics Technology, located at 4001 Central Pointe Parkway, Temple, TX 76504. You can also call them at 1-800-989-7568.