Inventory Management
What is inventory management?
Inventory management enables businesses to determine the types and quantities of stock to order and the optimal timing for replenishment. It monitors inventory throughout its journey, from procurement to the sale of products. This process helps businesses recognize and adapt to market trends, ensuring sufficient stock is available to meet customer demands while also providing timely alerts about potential shortages.
3 steps of inventory management
Purchasing inventory: Products intended for sale are procured and sent either to a warehouse or directly to the retail location.
Storing inventory: Items are kept in storage until required. They are moved through the supply chain as needed, ready for distribution.
Earning from inventory: Stock levels are managed to ensure availability. Completed products are picked to fulfill customer orders and dispatched for delivery.
Benefits of Inventory Management
Saves Money
Analyzing inventory patterns helps you track the quantity and location of your stock, enabling more efficient utilization of available resources. This approach reduces the need for excess stock at individual locations (such as stores or warehouses) by allowing you to source from various points to meet demand. As a result, it minimizes costs associated with overstocking and lowers the risk of unsold items becoming outdated.
Improves Cash Flow
Effective inventory management ensures you invest in stock that generates sales, keeping cash flow active and continuously circulating within the business.
Satisfies Customers
A key factor in building customer loyalty is making sure they get the products they need promptly and without delay.
How does ICHOME manage inventory?
Analysis EOL Components
Analyze and identify parts that are about to be discontinued and commonly used components that are in short supply, and continue to pre-order and purchase.
Consignment
In consignment inventory management, our company only pays the supplier after our product is sold. Therefore, many times the electronic components you buy from some electronic component platforms also come from our inventory.
Demand Forecasting
Predict and analyze customer needs, and keep abreast of the semiconductor industry situation and latest developments, including the impact of the epidemic, the Sino-US trade war, sanctions, natural disasters (Japanese address, fire), production capacity constraints (employee strikes), raw material shortages (tight silicon wafer supply, rising rare metal prices).
Dropshipping
Supplier ships items directly from our warehouse to the customer.
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)
Companies order large quantities of inventory to reduce holding and other costs
Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)
Understand and handle annual planning and inventory control for manufacturers.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
Most Distributors will order a minimum amount of stock from wholesalers in each order to keep costs low, but ICHOME does not have a minimum order quantity.
FIFO and LIFO
First In, First Out (FIFO) means you move the oldest components first. Last In, First Out (LIFO) assumes that prices always rise, so the most recently purchased inventory is the most expensive and therefore sold first.
Cycle Counting
The process of physically counting all inventory, in most cases once a quarter, with cycle counts of the best-selling SKUs or higher value items.
What Are the Objectives of Inventory Management?
One of the objectives of ICHOME inventory management is to keep enough inventory to meet customer needs, and another is to get as many components as possible while still making the most profit.
Get the highest returns by reaching out to global buyers.
Partnering with a global independent distributor connects you with buyers worldwide, enabling you to sell surplus inventory to a broader network. Quickly offloading surplus inventory helps minimize these challenges and protects your business's financial health.
Help you control your inventory, ordering and production, make customers happy and reduce costs.
