Route Sales & Inventory Management
Inventory Management and Accuracy is an ongoing effort when it comes to Route Sales. A good comprehensive mobile solution is the greatest positive step you can make. Inventory is loaded, transferred, sold, returned, scrapped, unloaded, and sometimes lost. With so much handling, mistakes are inevitable. A team equipped with a comprehensive mobile solutions improves inventory accuracy.
Management has to keep a close eye on inventory for the success of the business. Having an Mobile App is a must but the Mobile App needs to be coupled with a systems of alerts, monitoring, Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence to provide all the insight possible. FwdMbl Solutions, LLC provides tools to monitor and dig into your inventory while passing the data on to any ERP system.
Truck Loading. Loading the truck may be done by warehouse staff or the driver themselves. As part of the loading process, inventory is verified and transferred on to the truck. This verification process could be a scan of each item or a count and verification of a number in the Mobile App. The Mobile App should have a list of what is to be loaded on the truck, aid in product identification and options to transfer inventory.
The Selling Process. As the route proceeds from customer to customer, the App should give the driver accurate item accounting like any other inventory management system. The truck should be considered as a standalone warehouse. It should have item counts for beginning, sold, returned, scrapped, transferred and available quantity. The App needs to understand that a credit reason code may or may not affect inventory. It needs to be understand that a hundred of this item is needed for a customer ten stops down the road, but I can sell you six to you right now. It needs to alert the driver and warehouse about inventory shortages, for example overselling what was loaded on the truck. It should let a driver know they are selling something below the profit margin setup by the company. An App with great validation, configuration, and ease of use will make the driver efficient and happy while making sure company rules are followed.
Truck to Truck. There are times when routes overlap and cross. Sometimes drivers exchange product or deliver for another driver. Each truck is often treated as a separate location. The App should allow truck to truck transfers to track movement. These transactions should be recorded for visibility and to answer questions the inventory crew may have. Drivers should be able to bring up a list of locations and see who else has the item my customer wants.
Truck Return. Inventory reconciliation is often a time consuming process when a truck returns. Some companies cycle count a truck when they return others will spot check the high traffic items. When your Route Sales Solution allows you to boil down the return quantity as (Loaded Quantity – Sold Quantity + Returns Quantity – Scrap Quantity ) = Number Left on Truck. Simple right? – but never as easy as it looks. Inventory crews rush in review scrap, count items, and prepare the truck for the next trip. The Mobile App solution should provide the correct Route Accounting reports on truck return. Whether your company requires a Cash Settlement, Inventory Settlement, or Time-Line reports, the correct data should be available to everyone by email and within the App. Your Route Sales solution should be flexible but also control the process. It is very easy to let counts slide.
And that’s Great, BUT… There are always issues tracking and managing inventory in companies with routes. Whether it is theft, scrapping items that should not have been scrapped, selling individual items out of a case, or product identification issues while performing a transaction. Management needs reports that provide the insight into the inventory. The review process often occurs the next day. The best reports can be configured for alerts and highlighting of things out of the normal. These type of reports bring attention to things we know are an issue, address these issues and move on to the next set of alerts and before you know it, accuracy will get better. The solution should have Dashboards providing a high level review of the route and allowing drill down as needed. Information could be fed into a DataMart for Analytics and into a ERP system with advanced reporting.
FwdMbl Solution’s Route Sales Solutions manages inventory, improves the sales process, and gets management the data they need. We understand the importance of accurate numbers throughout the whole process. We know what drivers left the warehouse with, what they sold, and what they scrap in real time. The drivers, warehouse crews, and management all can see it. This visibility is the first step to fixing accuracy problems.
John Kangas is CEO, partner, and developer at FwdMbl Solutions, LLC. FwdMbl Solutions, LLC is a provider of Enterprise Mobile Sales and Proof of Delivery solutions that improve and change the sales process. Our Route Sales solution is mature, comprehensive, and ahead of the rest.
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