Inventory management is at the heart of all repair businesses. With that said, understanding the fundamental challenges in inventory management becomes essential. What if we give you a simple solution? Repair Tracking Software!
With cloud-based software, you can improve customer satisfaction and improve profits in no time. In other words, whether the inventory is in the warehouse, at different locations, drop-shipped, or consigned from a supplier, you can manage it all!
So, let’s go through the main inventory management problems and find out their solutions.
1.   Not Getting Complete Visibility Of The Inventory
Are you aware of the number of purchase orders that are in line? And when are they expected to reach your location? How many items have to go to the safety stock or should be on the shelves?
Having the complete visibility of your inventory all the time will ensure a successful business. The knowledge of your stock levels has an impact on the way you control your business.
For that, you should know the real-time inventory levels to avoid significant problems. For instance, products getting out of stock or backorders.
If you have repair tracking software, you can set reorder levels and stock warnings. In addition to this, you can know when you are about to run out of parts.
2.   Inefficient Management Of Inventory
Many repair shop owners are still living in the Stone Age. They usually use excel spreadsheets for their inventory management. The limitations of excel spreadsheets are known to all. Which is not efficient at all! It can result in significant hurdles if you do not automate your processes.
Not having repair tracking software is tedious, obsolete, and time-consuming. And results in human errors as well.
In addition to this, managing a large inventory manually will do no good for your repair business growth. As the sales increase and inventory magnifies, the lack of repair tracking software will give dismal results.
A POS software will help in employee management. And you can assign management tasks resulting in an efficient system. You can also track items from the moment it enters to the moment it leaves. In addition to this, it will help you streamline the processes and have real-time data.
In contrast, repair tracking software will allow you to track SKUs across all the stores while tracking returns, orders, and exchanges for all the products. You can easily create invoices, purchase orders and generate barcodes.
If you label your products and SKUs correctly, you will optimize your inventory to a greater extent.
3.   Difficult to Maintain Multi-Location Warehouses
Running multiple repair stores might give you faster and affordable shipping to the customers. At the same time, you can make popular items in the region accessible. But, it can be challenging when you have to transfer items from one store to another and skip noting the transfer down.
With RepairDesk, you can manage all your locations effortlessly. In addition to this, you can view reports and find out your stock levels for reorders. It’s a win-win situation for you.
4.   Not Having A Reliable Relationship With Vendors
It might seem like a basic thing to do, but most repair shops don’t have a good work relationship with their suppliers. So, you need to build a long-lasting relationship with your supplier by looking for common ground.
If you find a good cell phone repair parts supplier in the USA, it will result in consistent business.
5.   Increased OversellsÂ
Oversells usually kill the repair revenue. It occurs when you have sold more products than what is available in the inventory. Usually, this happens when your inventory counts are not accurate. And they show that the inventory has more products than it actually does.
Imagine selling a product that you don’t have. Disastrous right?
It can go two ways. They might find something else to buy or go to another shop and purchase the product. If your competitor makes the customer happy, you might lose future sales.
For that, you continuously have to update the inventory counts after every sale. That can only be possible through repair tracking software. It can help you avoid oversells by accurately tracking the inventory counts.
We suggest conducting cycle counts regularly for items that make a significant portion of your revenue.
6.   Avoiding Lost Inventory
Nothing is worse than realizing that you have the items in the inventory but cannot locate them. It’s frustrating for anyone. You can easily avoid inventory loss by adequately planning your list. Inventory warehouses need to be designed deliberately with a standard system.
Each item requires to have a designated place. Tracking all inventory items with barcodes on pallets, items, shelves, and bins in a well-designed space can help avoid lost stock.
Use the total capacity of your space to optimize the warehouse. The proper use of space will enable your employees to get work done faster and finish more jobs in a day. Also, it will save overhead costs by not expanding pointlessly.
Usually, repair businesses have a budget to account for the loss or damage of stock. Human error and poor planning will ultimately lead to some damage or loss. However, you should write lost inventory as a loss.
So, use repair tracking software to prevent the loss of inventory. This can be done by getting accurate counts through the cell phone repair POS system. You can single-handedly manage all your locations through it.
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Conclusion
Overcoming the significant challenges in inventory management is always an ongoing process. You should carefully monitor the operations of every warehouse constantly to improve efficiency and productivity.
Recording your inventory on spreadsheets or using an outdated management system can result in huge business loss. You can achieve the right amount of success when your repair tracking software is coupled with the right team.
So, make sure you hire employees in the warehouse who are dedicated, trustworthy, trained, and willing to work with technology. Only then can you manage all operations of your warehouse efficiently and focus more on expanding your business.
One of the reasons why small cell phone repair shops are unable to grow is poor inventory management. So, take hold of your repair business today for a bright future.
