How Public Warehouses Use Bar Codes to Improve Accuracy of Your Inventory

We’re all familiar with bar codes and the ease in which they provide valuable information about a product when scanned. Without a doubt, their use in retail environments enhance the customer experience.

But did you know bar codes are also used in public warehouses? Besides providing the type of product and its price, bar codes allow your goods to be tracked throughout the entire warehousing and distribution process.

For your business, that means improved accuracy of inventory counts to prevent overstock or out-of-stock situations, two very costly occurrences for your company.

A Bar Code Labeling System Makes Perfect Business Sense

If your company is still using a paper-based process to track inventory, you’re probably seeing a lot of inventory inaccuracies due to transcription errors. In addition, your company is probably spending a big chunk of time and money on manual data entry.

In a warehouse setting alone, just think of all the hands required to inventory and move finished goods, and all the opportunities for errors to occur if done manually.

For instance, you have the lift truck and palletizer operators recording incoming product information. Then there’s order processing staff keeping track of inventory being pulled to fill orders. Add in the shipping operators writing case codes. Finally, you would need someone to key all this manual information into your company’s database, sometimes not until several days later.

A bar code labeling system, on the other hand, automates the process and removes the risk of errors occurring, delivering 100 percent inventory accuracy. It also reduces data entry time that can be spent on other important business tasks.

Case studies have shown that a bar code system improves inventory management and increases the accuracy and efficiency rate of company operations.

The Benefits of Using Bar Codes for Data Collection

Automating data collection by using bar codes is an investment that starts paying off immediately with these benefits:

• Improved and streamlined data collection operations.
• Immediate entry of inventory data in the company’s database, so the real-time status of inventory is known.
• Ease in gathering information about an order, including items and their quantities, allowing for accurate counts on inventory.
• More detailed information about your goods, including when they were made, the specific contents on a pallet, and where they were shipped.
• Enhanced ability to track and trace inventory.

Public Warehouses Provide Immediate Integration

With a public warehouse third party logistics provider (3PL), such as Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services, there’s no need to start from scratch building and installing a new system. Establishing a bar code system can be done through our warehouse management system (WMS), so it does not impact your current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

The only changes required are on the warehouse floor, where functions like bar code scanning and labeling of inventory on pallets, cases, etc., are implemented. This allows your company to know where your inventory is stored in our warehouse, how much is left, when it is moved for picking to fill an order, when the orders are processed, and when your goods are loaded in a truck for distribution to customers.

Unlike a manual system that takes days or weeks to track goods, bar codes allow for up-to-the-minute tracking and traceability of your goods as they travel to their end destination.

See How Easy Bar Coding Warehousing Can Be

No matter your type of business, operations efficiencies are essential for remaining competitive and expanding into new markets. One way to streamline processes is through the use of bar codes in the warehousing, logistics, and distribution areas.

By eliminating manual data entry and transitioning to automated data collection, your business will realize significant savings, improved customer service, and a better utilization of staff.

To learn more on how an automated bar coding system can improve inventory management and help your business operate in a more efficient manner, contact Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services.

You’ll be amazed at the difference our warehouse management system can make when combined with automated bar codes.