Manufacturing Inventory Management
The manufacturing business is very competitive. To be successful the company must control spending, cut inventory costs, increase productivity and complete tasks on time. Management must have fast and accurate information at their fingertips at anytime and all the time. Finding the best software will provide this information in an easy to understand format and include the most recent data.

Manufacturing company administrators are looking for an inventory software package with cost-effective solutions that increase productivity and complete tasks on time. Those using "Just-In-Time" building philosophies will look for assistance in material distribution and software that provides data to "pull" the material from the suppliers to the warehouses and on to the manufacturing process.

For insight and action that's closer to real time, lean manufacturing requires closely managed inventory and streamlined supply chain communication. This is necessary for reaching goals for continuous improvement. Companies that adhere to lean manufacturing are dedicated to produce to demand. This necessitates more accurately calculated mandatory inventory, reducing costs associated with carrying inventory at the proper location and levels. The costs resulting from rushing or halting production to keep pace with demand and overcome bottlenecks and delays must also be addressed.

Henry Ford, who bought items only at the last minute in order to obtain just what he needed, just when he needed it, developed the first "scientific" system for inventory management in the early 1900's. Just-in-time buying, as it's called, relieves the financial drain of back orders, inventory carrying costs and slow movers on shelves or in the warehouse. It thwarts overbuying. Moreover, since empty-looking shelves are a signal to buy, it avoids the tedious job of minutely tracking how every item carried is selling.

Lowering inventories is one of the quickest ways to decrease working money needs. Performance measurements, such as the old standby ROA (return on assets) and the newer EVA (economic value added), as well as other measures that gauge how efficiently capital is used, have become more common organizational drivers. In fact, many an executive's bonus depends, at least in part, on how efficiently capital is used. Couple the drive for efficient capital use with the need to respond more quickly to changes in customer demand, with shorter and shorter order-to-delivery cycle times, and the problem that is challenging many manufacturers is well defined.

In many organizations, damaged or unusable inventory is hidden. Maybe it is thrown in a scrap pile or discarded. This could be damaged material, unintentional scrap created when a mistake was made in filling an order or quantities of a product that are too small to be sold or used. The best-run organizations encourage or even insist that employees record this inventory. Recorded unusable inventory is analyzed to determine if polices or procedures can be changed to prevent the same mistakes from occurring in the future. Material may be damaged because it isn't being stored properly or perhaps the vendor should be approached regarding better packaging. There may be particular employees who are careless in the way they handle materials. This information may point out that the necessary tools are not available-such as it is difficult to measure a long length of pipe with a short ruler, just as it is nearly impossible to create a precise, clean cut with a dull saw. The problem of too small, left over quantities may need to be addressed-perhaps a customer should be forced to purchase an entire unit.

Solutions for the reporting of scrap online with notification to the order specialist or supplier will be important. This minimizes interruptions that frequently exist as a result of line shortages and keeps the materials supply chain intact.

For those manufacturers that have robotic equipment in their processes the ability to collect data about their processes will be needed. Historical and real-time data will assist them in making informed decisions. Data for building instructions can also be sent to these robots to assist in picking out parts or a multitude of reasons.