Thursday, 3 January 2013

The Perpetual Inventory System: Disadvantages and Advantages

By Darren Folkes


Inventory management is needed in order to keep track of a company's goods and services.If you do not know what is available, then you cannot use it to your advantage.There are two kinds of inventory systems.They are the perpetual and periodic inventory systems.They are updated in two totally different ways.This article will focus on the perpetual system.

The perpetual system is constantly updated.The system is update for when orders are shipped, placed or received.Technology makes it possible to deal in real time.Info is entered via bar coding.The perpetual inventory system is extremely popular because all retrieved and delivered information is up to date and in real time.You are guaranteed that the information that that is received within the reports is the most up to date information available.

But, humans can still cause errors.The information is only as accurate if it is entered into the system.It cannot be seen, analyzed or corrected if it is never keyed into the system.This is why the information has to go in once an order is placed, shipped or received.

Of course with any type of system there are going to be both pros and cons.The main benefit is that it is in real time.For instance, sales personnel must know how much inventory is in stock before they can sell it to potential customer.This is especially true if the customer is expecting same day delivery.The salesman can get this information from his laptop or phone.He has the information that he needs at his fingertips.It is a smart way to check inventory before placing a same day order for a customer and finding out that the product is not in stock.

In the past, the salesperson would have to get someone from the office to help him with this info.Someone would have to go to the warehouse and do a stock check.This might take a long time to get information in this manner.This explains why the perpetual system is so well liked.It cuts down on time.

When it comes to the perpetual inventory system, there are few cons.The loudest complaint is that it is a huge upfront investment.The software for this type of system is not cheap.But, once you get past this, it is a great system.Also, if you have to enter the info, then this can be quite time consuming.The database has to be maintained.

There are both disadvantages and advantages, but it is a great inventory management system.




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