Inventory Management by Manufacturing Needs

Inventory management remains a crucial business process regardless of manufacturing needs. Inventory may be classified differently based on where it stands in the manufacturing or production cycle, but it still must be counted, maintained, and managed accordingly. Without the right inventory management tools in your business, you’ll continue to suffer losses—big and small—due to inefficiencies.

Four Inventory Types

Inventory is often grouped into four major types:

1. Raw materials: As the name suggests, raw materials are the actual materials used to make components for finished goods. Chemicals may be sent to a factory to make into plastic pellets that can then be heated, colored, and extruded to make pails or containers, for example.
2. Work-in-process: Work-in-process consists of components that are separate and need to be assembled into finished goods. Some are in process and others are waiting to be processed.
3. Finished goods: Finished goods are complete. Finished goods represent the stock of completed, ready to ship products.
4. MRO: Maintenance, repair, and operations items (MRO goods) are used within the production process but may not ship directly to consumers. These may include special items to clean equipment or other items for repairing goods or equipment.

Inventory Management—Separate Categories, One System

As you can see by the four categories above, each type of inventory may need to be managed differently. You may at any time have more raw good SKUs in stock than finished goods. MRO items need to be organized and counted by probably won’t ship to customers.

That’s where Scanco Mobility and Scanco Warehouse enter the picture. Both provide accurate, real-time counts of all types of inventory to make inventory management a breeze. Your staff can find counts on raw goods, finished goods, MRO items—you name it; if you organize it and scan it, they can find it. 

Scanco has flexible solutions for manufacturing businesses of all sizes. Please call (330) 645-9959 to arrange a brief, no-obligation appointment with a Solutions Expert today.