In your construction business, it’s no doubt there are tons of construction materials, equipment and goods. The industry requires every business in this sector to keep track of the materials from one phase to another. Whether you lose track of your inventory or are left with the choice of doing everything manually, you know it’s pretty much a hassle. The most efficient solution to this issue is integrating a specialized software tool designed for inventory management.
Discover the benefits of integrating an inventory management system into your business.
What to Expect in Using Inventory Management Software?
Not only does this particular cloud-based software in construction keeps track of inventory, but it also has tons of functionalities, features, and added value that it brings to your business. Some of these features are:
Analyzing, organizing, and updating inventory data are some of the features that are incorporated with this software. It becomes easier for you to track and analyze how long it takes to process inventory. Planning your business’s workflow is a critical factor, and having the modern tool to use will become easier for you to maintain the workflow.
You may found your inventory operations to be often troubled due to buffer stock. With the help of a well-sorted inventory control module, buffer stock can be managed and then estimated to meet any unforeseen demands. As a result, it greatly reduces the work interruption caused by the lack of materials.
To successfully fulfill each order every single time, your construction business is required to track and monitor inventory. The best way to execute it is by automating it with the help of a specialized application. Based upon the notifications and alerts, proper monitoring of materials in every phase should be done. Therefore, allowing a company to reorder the materials and goods beforehand.
Several Benefits of Integrating Online Inventory Software
1. Reduced paperwork
If your construction business prefers to keep inventory records conventionally, note that the process can be tedious and has several adverse effects on operations and performance. Manually doing everything takes a long time, reduces workflow, and is usually inaccurate. That’s why it’s crucial to jump into automation. Automating the inventory process increases efficiency and reduces paperwork.
In fact, a centralized server is commonly used to keep and manipulate inventory records of a business, therefore eliminating paperwork.
2. Enhanced Accuracy
Human errors often happen in the midst of business operations. The construction machines, on the other hand, rarely show errors. Take note that there are thousands of multi-national construction companies that manage extensive data. In many cases, the accuracy of such details is vital to the operations.
And only with a reliable inventory management system can you best optimize all your inventory data and provide the exact number in no time.
3. Higher Productivity
A systematic and organized inventory management process means more and more gets done in less time. And using a functional inventory system to manage your inventory will cut down the time it takes to audit, process, and track your construction materials, equipment, and other warehouse stocks. With one interface, you can instantly check the stock amounts on your inventory.
4. Better Informed Decisions
Gain business insights with inventory tracking software to see what construction materials are popular in this period and what goods can go next period. Keep an eye on the tracking and inventory reports because it’s crucial to your company’s bottom line.
Successful inventory management and project management for construction means knowing and utilizing the many things you know about inventory to get the most of the market. You can also be best provided with all information you need for the inventory to make informed decisions.
5. Easy Inventory Processing
Streamline inventory processing by tracking materials, stocks, associated costs, and inventory figures with the use of cloud-based software to save you a lot of time. And with clearer visibility of your stock movement, you will always be aware and informed of the status of your inventory for better inventory management practices.
Additionally, inventory tracking instantly updates the quantities on hand, especially when purchasing construction materials in real-time for a much quicker processing time. The application tool can help your construction company with under or overstocking, ensuring there’s never too much inventory to move.
6. Automate Manual Inventory Tasks
The right software tool can automate inventory management systems for your construction business to increase revenue and count accuracy while reducing costly mistakes and human errors. Your crews won’t have to waste time counting and reporting stocks when specialized task management programs for inventory provide you with real-time information.
7. Reduces Deadstock and Aged Inventory
Sort your inventory by date to determine what orders have come in first, and make sure to check quantities by hand to determine how much you need. Knowing what stocks are going out of date too soon, particularly for perishable and fragile inventories, means selling aged inventory before it converts to deadstock and drops your company money. Keeping updated, particularly on your out-of-date materials, will help your construction business repurpose aging inventory and reduce wastage to save money.
Dealing with such stocks before it turns out bad is one of the several advantages of inventory management.
8. Lessens the Possibilities of Stock-Outs
Inventory control helps your business prepare for different events, such as stock-out, that usually affect the supply of your materials. Just in case if you don’t know, the stock-out happens when there’s an unexpected usage for a particular stock, causing it to run out. It also happens when inventory levels are allowed to go without regular checks.
Keeping inventory levels correctly balanced is a daunting task that any contractors have to deal with daily. Fortunately, effective web-based inventory software prepares you and your construction team for such eventualities. This software solution prevents such dreaded events from happening and throwing the entire supply chain off. If you’re not 100% certain on how to set up your inventory, never fear. Once you deployed this tool, everything is already set up and made more accessible for you.
Get started with a 30-day FREE trial! And join thousands of construction businesses wanting to improve their inventory management.
9. Coordinating Multiple Locations
Larger construction companies have been one of the earliest adopters of inventory tracking and other systems that assisted them with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). That’s mainly because such strategies work well with economies of scale. It’s worth noting that inventory management allows your construction business to combine and close out the individual warehouse operations, especially if you own multiple warehouses.
By the same token, associated systems for inventory management can help your company to manage multiple locations effectively. For instance, if you have five or more warehouses, inventory tracking will be then applied to anyone to provide a better and bigger picture analysis for long-term decision-making.
What are Considering Factors in Choosing the Best Software?
Now that you’ve already known some of the advantages of inventory management tools, how should you go about finding the right system? Before jumping head-first into a vast array of software vendors, take some time first to ask yourself a few probing questions. Anything you can ask and do to narrow down the market space can help you make your final decision much faster.
Here are some common questions you can ask yourself:
- How large is your business?
While the advantages of software tools for inventory management and project task management can help turn suffering inventory operations around, choosing the right system that doesn’t mesh with the actual size of your company can be disastrous. On the other hand, any large construction business might quickly outgrow the system’s capability meant for just a smaller company.
- Is there room in the budget with the new system?
You might be ready to take on to a new system, but is your budget? Depending on the number of resources you have that are available, specific systems can be too pricey to consider. Hence, avoid the human condition of expecting a much higher price tag means the best solution.
Go after systems that meet your company’s unique requirements and that can grow alongside your business.
- Which type of deployment strategy fits the most on your company?
The go-to method for software integration used to be the on-premise deployment strategies. However, cloud-based systems are increasingly growing in popularity due to its vast benefits. Several cloud-oriented solutions have lower entry costs that make them easily accessible to construction firms with lesser to spend.
Talk with your teams and decide together with them. Figure out what is essential and select the route with lesser resistance. And as you get better ideas of the issues you need to solve, the right system for you will slowly reveal itself. Submit questions to the vendors and talk to teams that would become the most affected by integrating a new system.
Ensure that all parties in your company are satisfied before even committing.
Key Takeaways
Your construction business can tremendously benefit from this cutting-edge technology designed for inventory. It improves productivity and tracking while curbing lost inventory and wastage. The advantages of such systems are vast and it’s impossible to deny that more and more construction companies will begin adopting these software solutions over time.
