Inventory tracking system to improve stock availability
1 min read
Future Electronics has completed the introduction of a worldwide inventory tracking and parts ordering software system which, it claims, improves its ability to match its available stock with expected market demand. The system will allow the company to offer next day availability of the 100,000 most popular components to any customer on nearly every business day of the year.
The Inventory Management System (IMS) monitors shipments to customers and deliveries from suppliers and provides a real time calculation of the number of days of stock it holds across the 250,000 parts it holds globally. The IMS also calculates the effect of variables – such as swings in customer demand and extensions or reductions in supplier lead times – on stock requirements and issues purchasing commands in order to maintain buffer stocks and to provide for sustained availability of parts.
Dan Casey, managing director of Future Electronics (EMEA), said: "Future Electronics has always invested unusually large amounts of working capital in inventory to ensure that parts are available when customers need them. Our new IMS means we can be much more confident than before that the large stocks we hold are of the parts our customers need most often, and that we have a sufficient buffer to absorb suppliers' lead times every day of the year."
The IMS means stock profiles at Future's warehouses in Memphis, Leipzig (pictured) and Singapore reflect more closely actual customer demand than before.
