Logistics and the importance of inventory control

What is an inventory? We know that an inventory is a specifically organized and detailed, ordered and valued list of the elements that make up the assets of a company. Now the main objective of inventory control is to guarantee the availability of a product required by a customer when and how the customer needs and wants it.

For this reason if there is an adequate and timely inventory control the company can respond quickly to the needs and requirements of its customers while controlling the costs associated with maintaining the stock.

The importance of inventory control

The importance lies in being able to maintain the correct stock balance of products in the warehouse which avoids losing a sale for not having enough inventory to complete an order or losing products due to excess stock.

For this reason inventories are nothing more than the process of knowing the assets that can be marketed by companies whose origin is in the knowledge of the items that are owned in the location of the same and the value of each one and the possibilities of its displacement depending on the demand.
In this way we can derive that the main purpose of inventories in logistics is to provide companies with the basic materials for their continuous and optimal operation.

Inventory is for companies one of the most important assets in the flow of internal processes, from here we understand inventory as one of the management and control systems that covers the registration of all movements of raw materials, merchandise and other goods of an organization.

For this reason when the inventory control is unbalanced is really catastrophic for the operation of the different areas in the supply chain will be difficult to know accurately the input and output of assets exposing the lack or excess of raw materials or materials as well as the increase of additional costs by the differences between profits and losses.

For which we must know the functions and purposes of inventories this is of utmost importance in order to avoid possible failures in the internal and external operations of our company. We also need a good inventory control to boost internal operations and thus provide better service to consumers.

In this way the management of inventories in logistics is in charge of facilitating the entry and exit of products to the warehouse, their classification, their location and their correct storage, the transit must be efficient because this has a direct impact on the performance of the company.

Therefore it is necessary to have an efficient administration to achieve an adequate and timely inventory management in logistics, allowing in turn to determine the manner and time of delivery of the goods marketed by our company.

Some mechanisms to achieve this objective are

• Inventory control policy: it lies in being able to know the amount of raw material, packaging or containers that the company has available.
• Short-term sales projection: having clear projections will provide the possibility of planning the purchases and production of each product, also allowing to know when it will be necessary to invest and reduce the waste of materials or inputs.
• Number, size and location of storage points: the organization and order of the inventory facilitates the task of classification and provides an impeccable environment that in turn will be easier to locate each work item, thus gaining time and efficiency.
• Relationship of products in warehouses: The handling and storage of products in logistics inventory management raises the cost of the final delivery, so it is extremely important to have a correspondence between the types of products stored and their entry and exit.