How to effectively improve inventory management for SMEs in Ghana

Inventory management is all about tracking and controlling your inventory as it's bought, sold, manufactured, and stored. With that said, there are a few key improvement techniques and inventory software you can implement as a business or SME owner in Ghana to support your inventory management (and guarantee its accuracy).

Check your product availability

At this point, you need to ensure the highest availability for your A items which are your highest-demand items to avoid stock depletion

Look at the strategic segmentation of your inventory

You can do that using the Pareto principles (80:20 rule)or ABC classification of items.

In this case, your A items are those that represent or account for 80% of your sales; the B items are 15% of sales, and the C items are the final 5% of sales.

Do a review of your excess and obsolete stocks

It's best to diagnose the health of your inventory to find out if you have any debt stocks (stocks that haven't moved in at least 12 months) while the excess stocks as generally identified as those that haven't moved in at least 6 months

This step is important because it provides an idea of the value of the aging stocks

Understanding the stock-keeping unit (SKU) level of your inventory

To do that we need to know the count of the frequency of demand of stocks by the ABC items classification and the values in terms of costs. Are your A items moving and high-demand products?

This is needed to

Target the service level of the individual inventories such as ABC items

Manage your safety stock

Tailor your stocking strategy

Help in forecasting strategy

Implement replenishment strategy

Write inventory policy for your enterprise

Do a review of your Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

As a business owner or entrepreneur, it is necessary to determine the metrics for measuring your outcome and progress, and this should be customized by;

Linking your KPI to your overall supply chain strategy

Not going overboard with your KPI; limit to only the important ones

Let me suggest the following KPIs for your SCM strategy

Product availability

DIFOT (Delivery In Full, On Time) aka On Time and In Full (OTIF) Delivery.

SIFOT (Supply In Full, On Time)

Stock Turns

Forecast Accuracy

GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment)

Choose the Right Software

Make sure to select software that meets your functional needs like;

Alert (on low stock levels)

Ability to balance stock levels and locations

Forecasting

Inventory planning

Container optimization

Order Scheduling

Echelon inventory management

Network optimization

Scenario monitoring

S & OP (Sales and operations planning) support

Reporting