The companies use supply chain and stock management software to avoid overstock or lack of products ; it is an effective tool for the organization of data inventory which before were generally stored in the form of paper copies or in spreadsheets.
Currently, with the prevalence of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), the function stock management constitutes a simple module pre-integrated in the whole of modules of a business software package called ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or PGI (Progiciel de Gestion Intégré) in french. At present, the enterprises resort more to ERP rather than bespoke business software.
Characteristics
A stock management software is made up of several key elements, which work together to create a coherent inventory for the systems of many organizations. These characteristics include :
Order management
If the inventory reaches a specific threshold, the stock management system of the company can be programmed to alert the managers in order to intervene. That helps the companies to avoid the deficit or the excess in quantity of a product.
Assets tracking
When a product is in a warehouse or a store, it can be tracked via its bar code and/or other follow-up criteria, such as the serial number, the batch number, or the revision number. Today, the stock management software often uses bar code, the identification by radio frequency (RFID), and/or wireless tracking technologies.
Services management
The companies whose main activity is based on the services use stock management software to track cost of the materials which they use to provide their services, such as the cleaning products for hygiene services … etc. In this way, they can fix the prices of their services which reflect total cost for carrying them out.
Product identification
The bar code is often the mean by which products and orders data are entered in stock management software. A bar code reader is used to read the bar codes and to search information on the products which it represents. The identification by radio frequency (RFID) and wireless are also methods of products identification which become more and more popular.
The modern inventory software can use QR codes or the NFC (Near Field Communication) which is a technology making it possible to exchange data at less than 10 cm, between two devices equipped with this appliance to identify the articles in stock. These technologies provide therefore an option for the small companies in order to track the inventory by using bar code scanning without needing to buy expensive digitalization equipment.
Stock optimization
A fully automated system for demand forecasting and stock optimization to program the main parameters of stock organization such as :
• Defining the points of reorganization : the number of unities which need replenishment order.
• Quantity of order : the number of unities which should be reorganized, on the basis of reorder point, available stock, and on order stock.
• The number of unities which will be sold during the delay.
• Cover of stock : the number of days before the stock shortage if no new order is placed.
Stock management software ERP (PGI) by SII-Algeria.
