Taking inventory: do you have the right tools for a tough job?

Posted on | September 17, 2008 |

Every retail store management team knows that inventory is inevitable. Once or twice a year it’s a good idea to inventory the store and see how everything compares on paper and in actual fact. No matter how many times you’ve done this, there are always chances to mess up. So, ask yourself:

Do I have the right tools for asset management?

Before performing your inventory, begin by taking stock of your asset management tools. Make sure you have the asset tools that will help you with inventory; these tools should make inventory quick and easy:

Barcodes

Whether you use the manufacturer’s barcodes or print your own, barcodes can give the serial number, category, brand and model number. Barcodes in sequential order will make tracking your assets easy; remember that some manufacturers have alpha-numeric barcodes with the letters outside of the barcode number. Confusion can result when these unique identifiers has text included.

Location Barcodes: Another reason to print your own barcodes is location barcodes. Location barcodes, including sub-location barcodes, speed up the inventory process. Location barcodes can be placed on a door frame, table or other fixture. Sub-location barcodes narrow down the location to a specific table, room, drawer or shelf. The smaller the area where items can be found, the easier they are to inventory.

Tamper Evident Tags

If your retail store is such that products should be tagged to indicate tampering, such as clothes, now is the time to double-check them. You need dependable choices, like vinyl or metal tags. Your choice will depend on what works best for your environment.

Hand-held asset tools and scanners

Handheld asset management tools, such as scanners, speed up inventory. If you’re covering a large area, make sure you equip enough employees with scanners to finish inventory quickly. Scanners and other handheld asset management tools capture an item’s location, barcode, serial number, category, brand, model, status, the user who scanned it and anything else you may need.

Before you scan

Before you begin scanning, put your asset management tools to use:

• Review locations: make sure you have a master list of locations. Some new buildings may not have every location and sub-location detailed.
• Create a master inventory list: master inventory lists tells you something exactly which assets you have. If you haven’t done inventory before, your master list can be scanned in first. If you already have a master list, make sure you have a high confidence level in your list before you begin.
• Create a baseline inventory list: don’t worry about pre-loading data or asset records into your handheld for this quick scan; you only want the locations. Update locations and the date inventoried. Once you finish a baseline, run reports and double-check you found all assets. Wait until the end since assets are moved around frequently.
• Assign location grouping: if you are scanning inventory in each of your stores, assign which location each user should have access to. You want that user to scan your store in Omaha and not get inventory for your entire company around the country.

There are many steps to performing inventory of assets. For more information on inventory and the tools needed to organize your inventory procedures, check out Asset Tracking Software.

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