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Stepping into supply chain planning for manufacturing is like tackling a maze of hurdles.

In Part 1, we discussed the shortfalls in the 7 compelling reasons why not to use a spreadsheet for your inventory planning  In part 2, we look at what is expected from a spreadsheet from an Inventory Management perspective.

When it comes to disruptions in the supply chain, we may not be in control of external factors such as political, environmental, or, as we have recently seen, pandemics.

Most small businesses start off with a few products which are easily managed in a spreadsheet. As your business grows, you gradually start to expand your range.

Excess stock is inventory that is purchased in excess of the demand. But why all the fuss about it?

Suppliers are a fundamental link in the supply chain over which you, as a business, have little control. There is always the inherent possibility that deliveries will not be on time, and even if they are, they may not be complete in terms of what you ordered.

Many senior managers that were born in the ’60s or ’70s were taught by their parents that it was better to buy software, buildings, and other assets to reduce the expenses incurred in interest and grow the capital value of the business. 

Throughout our lives, from the cradle to the grave, we are classified – classified according to our age, sex, religion, political views, demographics, hobbies, opinions, dietary choices, and many more. These classifications are used by companies to sell or market to us, or to determine our risk factors. 

Your supply chain business may be at the stage on the inventory maturity curve where you want to consider extending your ERP functionality to provide better demand planning and forecasting functionality. You won’t be starved for choice as there are many solutions available today.

The foundation of any supply chain business is its Inventory.  As with any “foundation,” if it’s not healthy and stable, the cracks will start to appear. Before long, you will have severe problems on your hands, which take away from the little time you have in dealing with emergencies.

Some form of energy fuelled the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd industrial revolutions. The 1st revolution used steam, the 2nd , electricity; the 3rd saw the emergence of nuclear energy and the rise of electronics with the microprocessor as well as the rise of telecommunications and computers. 

In a previous blog post, we looked at the difference between Inventory Control and Inventory Management. Today, we want to look specifically at Acumatica, a true-cloud ERP application that has seen significant growth over the last few years.

Improving your inventory balance gives your company a competitive edge: lower costs and higher customer fill rates lead to more success.

Unlock best practices and tips to safeguard inventory, minimizing the risk of damage and spoilage.

Inventory loss is either a result of admin mistakes, spoilage/stock damage, expired products, or even theft, all of which can end up being a substantial amount of loss if there are no prevention plans in place. Let’s look at some ways to minimize these losses before they put you out of business.

Inventory control manages stock accuracy within a warehouse. Inventory management determines how much stock a business should hold and when to replenish it.

In previous articles, we’ve looked at the real cost of inventory and at the internal and external factors that affect your inventory planning and management. In this article, we’ll look at Artificial Intelligence, IOT, and Machine Learning to see how this technology is impacting companies today by reducing costs, streamlining efficiencies, and even saving lives.

Netstock pleased to announce we’re a sponsor at SuiteWorld19, the annual NetSuite conference for customers, partners, media, and industry analysts.

Achieving a balance between understocking and overstocking is an inventory planner’s daily reality. But there’s more to the job than just monitoring item levels – there’s an ongoing balance of risk factors, both internal and external, that a planner must be fully aware of to keep a warehouse running efficiently.

In the previous post, we looked at the basics around the supply chain and, more specifically, we discussed how the supply chain applies to small and mid-sized businesses. In that post, we saw that a supply chain is the movement of products from suppliers down to consumers, and at the same time, the movement of information from consumers to suppliers.

Many small and mid-sized businesses don’t think they have to worry about big topics like “supply chain”. They’re SMBs after all, and supply chain seems more like a problem for the big guys. But ignoring supply chain doesn’t make it go away. It’s still there, and you’d be surprised how complex it gets even for SMBs. The more complex it gets, the harder it is to manage, and the harder it is to keep under control.

The Netstock team is proud to announce we’re a Gold Sponsor at Acumatica Summit 2019. We’ll be on the show floor at the Houston Marriott Marquis, and we’ll be sharing everything there is to know about inventory replenishment and inventory optimization.

Managing a warehouse in manufacturing, distribution, and retail environments is increasingly tricky, because even smaller and mid-sized businesses are dealing with a global supply chain. A warehouse is a dynamic work space that requires nimble leadership, and that includes your inventory planning.

The Netstock team is happy to announce we’ll be a sponsor at this year’s GPUG, part of the annual Summit expo for Microsoft Dynamics ERPs.

The Netstock crew is proud to announce we’ll be a sponsor at SuiteWorld18, the annual NetSuite user conference for customers, partners, media, and industry analysts. We’ll be on the show floor at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas, and we’ll be sharing everything there is to know about inventory replenishment and inventory optimization. Find us at Booth #851 to learn how you can improve your NetSuite inventory with Netstock!

The Netstock team is dedicated to informing you about supply chain innovations. It’s our passion and our expertise, and providing inventory optimization is why we built our app. On Wednesday, June 14th, we’ll be co-hosting a webinar with our colleagues at B2BGateway, who are integrated EDI experts, on the topic of leveraging the latest supply chain technologies. Together, we form a critical combo for businesses that want to maximize their profitability through their warehouse.

The Netstock team is excited to be at SuiteWorld17, the annual NetSuite user conference for customers, partners, media and industry analysts. We’re on the show floor at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas now, and we’ve got a handful of inventory management and replenishment experts ready to talk about all things inventory with you. Visit Booth 1026 to have a chat and see our affordable and easy-to-use inventory optimization app.

Acumatica Summit 2017 was the biggest event in the growing ERP publisher’s history, and the Netstock team was proud to be involved once again as a Gold Sponsor at the event. We caught up with Russ Graf, Netstock’s Vice President of Sales – North America, who was on hand in La Jolla to talk about the expo.

The Netstock team is proud to announce we are a Gold Sponsor at Acumatica Summit 2017. We’ll be at the event talking to users, prospects, and VARs about our cloud-based inventory optimization app, which seamlessly connects to Acumatica ERP.

In our previous blog posts, we looked why you should classify your products into ABC and how exactly to do that. So now that you’ve learned more about the benefits of classification, the next logical question is “What do I do with it?”

The general rule of thumb is gaining a new customer is more expensive than keeping an existing customer. Losing a customer hurts sales today while shrinking the company’s growth potential going forward.

Classifying stock items will allow demand planners to focus their efforts and allocate resources on the most significant items in their inventory.

Our crew here at Netstock just wrapped up a successful and busy Sage Summit 2016. As many of you know, we go to market as Sage Inventory Advisor in the Sage Software world, delivering affordable inventory optimization by coupling with a wide variety of the company’s ERP offerings.

We have identified that there are hidden costs associated with choosing Excel as your inventory planning tool of choice, highlighted that the problems usually start with your data, and suggested that ever-increasing complexity impacts sustainable inventory outcomes.