We are awash in data. Individually and as companies, we are faced with more and more information every day. On the one hand, this has opened up the world and given us details and choices that heretofore we could not have imagined. It has given us access. On the other hand, that same information can be like water spewing forth from a dam. Unchecked, it has the power to drown us. Getting control of that data and taming it, shaping it to our will, is where we make our mark.
When most people think about warehouses, they often imagine the final scene in the 1981 movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the scene, an attendant wheels a large crate down a crowded hallway and disappears amidst the clutter of thousands and thousands of similar wooden boxes. As the camera pulls back to reveal the enormity of the room, the attendant vanishes into obscurity. The message, of course, is that whats in every crate is unimportant a mere grain of sand on a forgettable beach.
Needless to say, this image is fiction in more ways than one. Todays warehouses are living, breathing entities where little is static. Theyre less about boxes on shelves as they are about merchandise being moved. In 2016, a warehouse should be thought of less as a retirement community and more as an airport terminal designed for short stays and to keep things moving.
Big data, which is just a fancy moniker that means all of it, collected from both official and unofficial channels, is an amazing resource. Of course, theres a difference between having information and using it. The power of big data lies not in its volume per se, but in the opportunity it provides to yield insight. Being able to access it, analyze it and put it to work is changing the way inventory management is done. Utilizing that data, businesses today have the ability to worker smarter, faster, more responsively and more profitably.
The Big Reveal
Think about it. Big data reveals inventory levels, customer statistics and purchasing patterns, sales numbers, delivery schedules, pricing fluctuations, and more. It also gleans information from disparate systems like web-based data, accounting systems, CRM systems, scanners and smartphones. With access to all this data, it becomes possible to recognize trends, stock appropriately and react more adroitly to customer demands. That, in turn, yields higher customer satisfaction, higher profits (due to less waste), and improved operational efficiencies. Advances in technology allow for management, inventory and operations to converse with one another and exchange information in real-time.
Inventory management is not an area that can afford to be run like a game of Telephone. Theres no time to wait for the right information to be passed from Person A to Person B, or from System A to System B. Do it the old-fashioned way, and critical information is liable to be lost along the way. Lag time can mean financial drag time, which then has repercussions in other areas of the business.
The reality of big data also means that data analytics predictive analytics in particular is a practice thats time has come. Investing in the right analytics software (and inventory optimization technology, like RFID) is the X that marks the treasure on any companys map forward. Ask yourself questions like
- How much data are you collecting?
- From where is the data coming?
- How certain are you of the datas veracity?
- How often does that information change?
These guiding questions can help you better identify not only who your customers are, but what theyre buying, when theyre buying, and even for what purposes those purchases are made. Details, details, details… and therein lie the answers and the advantages.
Inventory management is more than just stacking products on shelves. Today, it involves more interactivity than ever before. The Internet has made it not only possible to make the world smaller; it has made it a necessity. Big data and the information it lays bare make it imperative that inventory ties directly into back-end control systems. Technology now needs to communicate with operations as it relates to the physical storage leveraged to manage those products.
The image of a staid, over-stuffed, dusty old warehouse is a throwback to an earlier time. Big data and the technologies built to capitalize on it have helped inventory management transform into a vibrant, responsive, and ever-changing field. The idea of boxes on shelves can safely be said to be mothballed, rolled away into obscurity.
Welcome to the 21st century.
