May 5, 2017 5 Signs You Should Replace Your Inventory System

When your company began, your homegrown inventory system worked fine and everybody understood and liked it. However, as your business has grown and your inventory continues to increase, it might be time to consider replacing your system with a professionally designed and configured system.

Here are five signs that indicate it might be time to replace your homegrown inventory system.

• You have hired a lot of new employees. New hires are familiar with the current operating systems and inventory management practices. Training them on a homegrown system could confuse them, and is time spent away from work.
• Homegrown inventory systems don’t have dedicated support teams. If something goes wrong with your system, who is going to fix it? If you depend on your IT team, that is only a stop-gap solution. IT work is a full-time task and asking one of them to look at your inventory system is too much of a strain on their time and resources.
• As your older employees leave or retire, there will be a gap in the knowledge of the system. Your older employees are the most experienced with the system; even with on-going training they have knowledge that may not get passed on.
• Your homegrown system isn’t based on current inventory management practices. Inventory management practices have improved, and current systems are better at tracking the traffic of your inventory.
• If your company had significant upgrades to its computer hardware or operating systems, your current system may not be compatible. This will require time spent adapting your system to your new computer network.

The word “scalable” gets tossed around a lot in business management. Companies are advised to be flexible in their markets and internal procedures to adapt to the constant changes in their industry. The concept also applies to inventory management. A management system that worked great a decade ago could be costing you time and money, and not efficiently managing your inventory.

If the time has come to replace your homegrown inventory system, Radley Corporation can help you move beyond spreadsheets and manual data entry to reduce errors and streamline your business processes. Contact us for your free consultation or visit our website to learn more.

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