Although stocktaking is a legal requirement, in many businesses it has become a process that generates unnecessary costs and frustration.
Whereare the hidden costs of stocktaking?
Several key factors make traditional stock counts inefficient:
- Sales downtime: “If you’re not selling, you’re not earning. On top of that, the market abhors a vacuum, so customers go looking for alternatives.”
- Overtime: Pulling every employee into the stock count drives up labour costs significantly.
- Counting errors: Poring over paper count sheets wears the team out, which leads to mistakes. As Marek Wróbel, COO of CAIRO-soft, notes: “My experience tells me it’ll be spot on, down to the last unit” is what you hear when staff cut corners to finish the process faster.
- Administration: Manually re-entering data from paper into the ERP system creates yet more room for errors and wasted time.
WMS: A modern alternative
Rather than treating stocktaking as an unpleasant chore, it’s worth seeing it as a process that can be optimized with a WMS. Moving stock counts from paper to mobile terminals is a game changer.
With cairo.WMS, you gain:
- Operational continuity: Stocktakes can be carried out during working hours, without halting sales.
- Accuracy and speed: Barcode scanning eliminates mistakes. “Can you scan every single unit instead of counting? That’s possible too, and it’s an equally good solution.”
- Precise verification: The system automatically flags discrepancies and sends only the specific items for recount, saving time.
- Full control: Once the stocktake is complete, managers have visibility into staff productivity and actual stock levels.
So it’s worth asking yourself: can we really afford to stick with outdated, costly practices?
