Proposal for redesign of Inventory tracking system Essay Example

maintain inventory for a period of 15 days and place an order with the warehouse at the end of this period. Currently, the order entry system is automated, where store managers raise separate requests for each clothing section.

The requests are automatically sent to the warehouse for order preparation within a week. Each day, the section's storekeeper reports the stock in and stock out to the store manager. The store manager collects stock data from different sections to forecast daily, weekly, and monthly sales. Seasonal sales are calculated in a similar manner based on previous seasonal sales counts. However, these sales projections and forecasts are assumption-based, and stock maintenance is becoming a delayed and cumbersome process. As a result, ABZ is experiencing problems with non-availability of customer-required products on the shelves.

The current system can generate various reports, such as Inventory flag reports, Inventory history reports, Receiving scan reports, Physical Scan report, Physical Inventory Recap, Stocking report, and Item list for specific location. However, it lacks the capability to immediately input data from the sales store to the warehouse for immediate order placement. Therefore, the company is seeking a communication solution between the sales outlet and warehouse to ensure products are always available on the shelf and to maintain the Economic order quantity.
The current automated system's database lacks the following features:
1. An alerting system for material shortages and excessive inventories.
2. Manual specification for each item in the database.
3. A target level for re-ordering.
4. A check to ensure items are being sold at or faster than expected.
5. A management information system (MIS) to make quick decisions on quantity levels and re-ordering.
6. Procedures for checking in and checking

out items.

The system database does not have direct entry of items entering or leaving it, which means there is no real-time inventory reflection. The current day stock outs need to be manually double checked, leading to errors and delays in the process. Additionally, there is no data support for tracking the movement of goods through the shelf.

The following alternatives have been considered by ABZ Company to improve the current inventory tracking system:
1. Updating the centralized database system for sales stores and warehouse: This will allow the warehouse to immediately acknowledge the order entry when a request is made by the store. The stores department will also have the capability to make requests even at the end of the day, reducing delays in order supplies from the warehouse to sales stores. The centralized database integrates various databases such as user, location, item, relationship, and transaction databases.

Inventory tracking challenges can be minimized by improving planning, organization, and consistency. However, this requires the daily manual entry of stock status into the central database. ABZ requires a straightforward, reliable, and precise inventory tracking procedure. The monthly, quarterly, and annual inventories must be cross-referenced with the inventory database. Additionally, inventory must still be verified at both shelf and store levels.

Mistakes and errors may appear in the records when implementing RFID technology in the storehouse and integrating the stock-in and stock-out data with the warehouse. This may cause a discrepancy between the electronic database and the physical warehouse. As a solution, it is suggested to automatically generate replacement requests from the storehouse to the warehouse when a product is moved from the shelf.

There will be no delay in the stock

replacement. Information will be very accurate from shelf to store and from store to warehouse. The delivery request can be raised at any point of time, depending on the pre defined EOQ from warehouse.

RFID technology facilitates the flow of inventory information like what stock is on shelf, what went out, when it happened, and what kind of customers are preferring the product. The proposed functionality of RFID technology is like this: The RFID tag of the product on shelf will contain a chip inside it to store product details. These chips broadcast the product in and out details as pertinent information and then print the tags out for affixing the tracking information.

Readers are the associated devices to pick up the signals that are broadcasted by chips within a specific proximity. The readers then transmit the inventory information to an edge server, that runs through a middle ware application and consolidates the data sent by the readers.

The edge server regularly transmits store inventory data to the warehouse database in order to track inventory. An RFID solution for inventory allows for real-time updates on product movement, scanning, and human involvement. This automation enables the determination of inventory status at any time and automatically generates shipping and receiving documents. Additionally, the system triggers automatic orders for low inventory products. The proposed RFID system offers the following benefits to ABZ:

- Clear visibility of total assets
- Complete understanding of the full history of inventory
- Decreased levels of inventory stock
- "Just-in-Time" deliveries
- Full control over products on shelves
- Reduction in lead-time
- Decreased cross docking time
- Rapid sort and pick rates
- More shelf space for new varieties
- Increased control
- Error reduction
- Decreased

cost of operations