Master inventory calculations and anticipate future demand

As the high cost of doing business persists and projects are delayed, it’s more important than ever to have a full understanding of your stock. Having on hand what customers want today is crucial, but being able to anticipate what they will want or not in the coming months can be challenging to predict. Fortunately, by utilizing your business data, you can master inventory calculations to prepare for the future.

Here are four metrics that will help your business master your inventory calculations.

1: viewing stock by territory or product

To get a clearer picture of operations it useful to view stock by territory or product. Perhaps one territory is selling more of a certain product, so you have to account for the increasing demand. Or, by looking at exactly how one product is performing, you can decide if you should slow down or speed up the frequency of restocking it.

2: plan your purchasing based on monthly demand

By using the right BI solution, you can determine how long your inventory on hand will last based on monthly demand. Through this calculation, you can make sure you minimize excess and profit off of aging inventory.

3: Sleepers that are profitable

Identifying sales trends through your data can help you understand slow moving inventory. Perhaps some products that are slow still bring in substantial revenue. You don’t have to restock them frequently, but they should not be considered dead stock just because they are not flying out the door.

4: Look at prior timeframes to plan for the future

It’s all well and good to have a simple calculation based on demand. But what happens when demand changes? Customer preferences and ordering patterns are susceptible to being altered. That’s why you need a solution that looks at all of your data — not just the data for the current period. Using business data, you can see past patterns and leverage them to predict what may happen next.

How the right BI solution can help you identify inventory calculations and plan ahead

The right BI software is not only impactful, but intuitive. You’ll get fast results that lead to straightforward decisions, making purchasing easier because you have increased visibility into what is going on inside the warehouse. Get clarity into when you need to restock fast moving inventory and estimate how long slow-moving inventory will stay on the shelves. This ensures you are only buying what is needed, saving you time and money.

You already have all the business data on hand. What you need now is to implement a BI solution that can help you make sense of it and maximize inventory. But it’s important to make sure you’re partnering with the right one. At Phocas, we pride ourselves on providing a solution that is easy to use but powerful. This means all teams can leverage Phocas to use the information at their fingertips.

Being able to master inventory calculations is just the first step. You’ll be able to dive deeper into your data than ever before and make decisions with the confidence that you have the information to back it up. A powerful BI solution can be your next competitive advantage.

To find out more, watch the Master inventory calculations and predict future demand video below: