Blog
Inventory management - digitally optimized with FrachtPilot
Katharina Rösner
Inventory management comprises all the way a product goes from production to sale. These processes are ideally automated through the use of software. We will explain to you how FrachtPilot supports your food company's inventory management in regional direct marketing.
The inventory management comprises the entire flow of goods from procurement or production to ordering to sales or renditions.
Inventory management systems are primarily designed for trade in goods, while ERP software integrates inventory management in addition to other modules and can therefore be used in other industries. An inventory management system supports and simplifies processes, which can vary depending on the type of product. For example, food has higher requirements than clothing. The more specific the area of application, the finer the features must be.
In food companies, this is reflected, for example, in the withdrawal of goods that are not automatically added to the warehouse because they could be perishable. That's why you have the option to add them manually in FrachtPilot. It's lucky that FrachtPilot provides you with all the important features ;)
The central part of inventory management is the inventory. This consists of the quantities of products that you create in the FrachtPilot dashboard. You also determine what quantity of which product is available, as well as the reported inventory: From what quantity do you want to receive the message that inventory is running low?
The production schedule comprises the replenishment quantities, which are calculated automatically and include future orders, for example. Download this and get an overview of which products need to be reproduced or reordered in which quantities. It is arranged according to the date of dispatch.
To automatically calculate the production plan, you can use the period Set or the Product type Or even the Frame tours. You can also Standing orders include, which represent expected orders.
The system calculates the total quantity of (expected) orders and deducts them from inventory. The required quantity and the current inventory result in the shortage that cannot be covered by inventory. This then results in the total demand that must be produced or purchased.
You can also connect your inventory management with your scale to weigh the goods, to labeling and add it to your inventory.
Another super practical feature of FrachtPilot is the evaluation. You can have all your sales evaluated according to the time window, the customer, the customer group, the product or the product group. This gives you information about the ordering behavior of your customers. For example, you can tailor your communication to them individually. The evaluation also shows you current inventories, missing and reporting levels.
You get including future forecasts from the analyses. To do this, you select the period as well as the customer group, customers or products. You can then export the data as an Excel spreadsheet. The future evaluation includes, for example, expected order quantities from standing orders, which have not yet been abandoned, but which you can take into account for the production plan.
Through a API, i.e. an interface, you can also connect your online shop to your inventory management. This allows you to easily determine whether your customers can also order temporarily unavailable products. This makes it possible to order when goods are only temporarily unavailable, which makes the ordering process more pleasant for your customers. You will then receive a notification that the reproduction or order has been made. Inventory-free products can thus be ordered regardless of their availability, but inventory-related products cannot.
The order is followed by picking, which is also part of inventory management. It can be carried out generally or separately. The general one creates a packing list for the entire tour. This is useful if you deliver little product variation on a tour and pick the goods from just a few boxes from the customer on site.
With large orders by business customers, separate picking makes sense, because then delivery is also faster. The individual product combinations are then commissioned before delivery. The default settings such as the customer group as a private household or supermarket as well as the vehicle capacities are therefore absolutely relevant for route planning.
In addition, the type of picking can be carried out at customer or tour level - but you can deliver both types on a tour. The separate orders can be picked in FrachtPilot under Orders. This is a type of digital order picking, which can be filtered by shipping date or trip, for example. This is how individual orders are grouped together.
The corresponding delivery note, labels and invoice can also be downloaded for each order. This is also an advantage of digital order picking. You can also have all documents created almost automatically. This saves you a lot of time that you would otherwise have to spend in the office.
Analog picking means that the packing lists are downloaded. This is also possible in summary for several orders for a tour or a day or for each order individually.
The best before date varies depending on the food. It indicates how long a product will retain its properties when properly stored. It is usually specified as day/month/year. For 6 months or more, the month and year are also sufficient. If it is less than 3 months, the day and the month are also sufficient. Packaged foods bear the best before date and are edible for several months because of preservatives or pasteurization - so are dairy products. However, many things can still be eaten even after the best before date has expired.
Eggs are edible untill 28 days after laying, but must be handed over to consumers after 21 days at the latest. vegetables, fruit and fresh baked goods, however, need no best before date. Highly perishable foods such as fresh meat need an expiration date instead. You can read more about the best-before and use-by dates at the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety.
In FrachtPilot you can specify for each product whether a best before date is needed or not and how the expiry period should be designed. You can find more information about this in our help centre.
Groceries always have an individual Batch number, which you can find out more about in our blog. Based on this, you can see in which batch your products were produced. This is particularly important for customer complaints. When products are recalled, it is an advantage to know the affected batch, because then only this batch has to be recalled. You can also trace sales back to customers, should it become necessary. In FrachtPilot, however, you can also define batchless stocks that you sell regardless of batches. Another advantage is the automatic printing of batch numbers on delivery notes.
The inventory management covers all flows of goods from production to sale. Inventory management systems have resulted ERP systems, which automate and facilitate these flows of goods and also business organization. FrachtPilot fills a gap in the market as ERP software for regional direct marketing of food optimizing your business processes through automation.
If you are looking for an ERP system for your regional direct marketing, have a look at FrachtPilot, book a free webinar to get to know us and the software, or try FrachtPilot directly free of charge.
