The Benefits Of Working With Serialized Inventory
My father owns a government contacting business and I am his purchasing agent. The business builds individualized parts that are used to make equipment for the government. These parts are what make up our serialized inventory.
Our warehouse is filled with bins that contain patented serialized inventory parts that we scan and log into the computer. The government buys the parts by the thousands, so it is important that they are tracked correctly and do not get mixed up in any way.
The old inventory control system we used did not have a serialized inventory component. At one point we actually had workers counting parts by hand and checking their serial numbers before placing them in the bin on their way to be shipped out. Finally we were able to find a serialized inventory program that could work in conjunction with our current inventory program. The new system offers us the ability to apply the serialized inventory component and integrate it with inventory control, sales orders, maintenance contracts, and returns.
The parts are only added to the computer count if the serial number is correct and matches the others in the batch. This allows replenishment of stock to be full proof and without error. Our planning and scheduling has gotten to be so much simpler because we know exactly the number of specific parts that we have available and how many more we will need to make in our shop. This new system also makes it easy to track the government contracts that we acquire and match up the serial numbers of the specific parts that were ordered to the total job as it gets completed. We are able to provide complete and accurate invoices with the serialized inventory numbers along with an accurate count for billing purposes. This new serialized inventory system is even making the book keeper's job easier because she now has an full proof way of tracking the serialized inventory by matching up the purchase orders with the invoice. The serialized inventory component has made our company much more efficient and better able to bid on larger contracts. We feel more confident that our rate of error has decreased and that the on going, larger government contracts are well within our grasp. It is always important to upgrade and stay on top of the latest computer technology offerings and for us the serialized inventory addition brought us up to date.
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