The different types of inventory

Effective stock management is crucial for any business, whatever its size or sector of activity. Inventory represents a major investment, and its management has a direct impact on profitability, customer satisfaction and the company's competitiveness in the marketplace.

Understanding inventory types and management methods is essential. Each type of inventory presents specific challenges.

Inventory management has a direct impact on a company's working capital requirements (WCR). Effective management minimises the capital tied up in inventory, improving liquidity and reducing storage costs.

By adjusting stock levels to precisely match demand, businesses can reduce WCR, optimise cash flow and increase profitability.

In this article, we explore the different facets of inventories in more detail.

Types of inventory

Physical inventory :

This involves physically counting and checking all the items or goods in a company to determine their actual quantity, at a given time.

Periodic stocktaking :

This involves counting and checking stock at regular intervals; usually at the end of each accounting period, such as a tax year.

Continuous inventory :

This maintains continuous monitoring of stocks in real time using computer systems, barcodes or similar to update stock levels with each transaction.

Safety stocktaking :

This consists of maintaining an additional level of stock in the event of unexpected demand or delays in the supply chain.

Fast-moving inventory :

This concerns items that sell quickly and are constantly renewed to avoid stock-outs.

Category inventory :

This consists of classifying items according to their type or category, which facilitates stock management.

Seasonal inventory :

This refers to stocks that vary according to the seasons or periods of the year.

ABC inventory :

ABC inventory is a method of classifying items according to their relative value to a business, using categories: A, B and C.

Inventory of sensitive products :

Special stock management for items that require particular attention due to their dangerousness, high value, theft or perishable nature, in particular. The aim is to minimise risks, guarantee security and compliance, while reducing losses.

The choice of inventory type depends on the unique needs and resources of each business. When making this decision, it is essential to consider factors such as the purpose of the inventory, the type of products stored and the business activity.

How to carry out an inventory ?

The keys to success :

Careful planning
Staff training
Physical organisation
Cross-checking

Methods :

Cyclic counting : Regularly counting part of the inventory at defined intervals, improving accuracy and reducing the time required.
On-demand counting : Counting or verification carried out specifically in response to detected anomalies or risks, rather than on a regular basis.
Full annual stocktake : Carrying out a full stocktake once a year, suitable for limited stocks or for an annual overview.

To make stocktaking easier :

Using barcodes, QR codes, NFC, RFID with scanners: Use unique codes for each item for quick and accurate quantity entry.
Stock management software: Automate stock tracking, reduce human error and provide real-time visibility, with detailed reports for decision-making.

Evolution :

The use of stock management software represents a major step forward in facilitating inventories.

By investing in stock management software tailored to your needs, you can make your stocktaking more efficient and accurate!

This enables your company to control costs more effectively, optimise stock levels and improve customer satisfaction through better product availability.

Why choose Monstock ?

Technology and constant innovation

Monstock is the innovative web and mobile cloud solution designed to digitise, simplify and automate stock and flow management. The digital and omnilogistics platform, operating in real time, offers mobility and high performance, enabling companies to improve their efficiency thanks to tailor-made and no-code management.

Monstock combines advanced techniques, such as theoretical stocktaking to inventory, while maintaining operations and recounting, for greater accuracy. The solution enables you to create and track inventories tailored to your needs without coding, and ensures precise traceability of actions.

A control tower centralises the monitoring of a group's inventories, while six valuation methods adapt the process to each company. Mobile compatibility with hardware such as laser scanners, RFID and NFC, as well as equipment such as ProGlove, makes management simple and efficient.

The solution incorporates AI predictive capabilities to identify sensitive/risky products to be inventoried and provides advanced automation with workflows.

With a strong commitment to security, Monstock ensures reliable and secure inventory and flow management.

Advantages

By choosing Monstock, you benefit from a number of advantages.

You have total control over your inventory, real-time visibility of your stocks, simplified management of your suppliers and optimisation of your supply chain.

Monstock is used in a wide range of sectors, including e-commerce, construction, warehousing and retail. The solution interfaces easily with existing information systems, offering more than 3,5000 connectors for seamless integration into customers' application ecosystems. Monstock offers a hypermobile and collaborative user experience, adapted to the specific business processes of each customer for rapid deployment and simplified learning.

By enabling users to configure and customise the platform, without the need for programming skills, Monstock offers valuable autonomy. This saves companies time and gives them total control over their goods. A pioneer in combining business expertise with no-code agility, Monstock offers a customisable solution that meets the specific requirements of a wide range of industries.