For any hire business, their inventory is the most important component of their capital. The availability of a hire business’s stock as well as its scope is the main driving force of its revenue.
Good inventory management can offer a plethora of benefits to your hire company, such as minimising holding costs that are incurred by stock-out and excess assets. Also, efficient inventory control can have an impact on customer satisfaction levels and encourage customer loyalty.
Fortunately, there is rental inventory software, also called hire inventory software. While this software can help your hire business with its hire management capabilities, it’s imperative that you first learn how to get your inventory management activities in order.
Here are some best practices for hire inventory management that you can follow and how rental inventory software can help.
1. Centralise your inventory records
Communication and sharing hire-related information are very important for any hire business. One way to ensure that information can be shared seamlessly is to centralise your inventory records.
When your company’s inventory records are put into a single place that all relevant staff members can access, it will help streamline collaboration between departments and ensure that everyone is aware of any changes in stock.
Also, the centralisation of inventory records saves your staff members from spending too much time looking for relevant information.
Hire inventory software comes with a centralised database that stores all relevant hire data so that it can be accessed by staff easily. Additionally, these databases feature encryption and other safety options to ensure that only specific staff members have access to inventory information.
2. Keep an eye on stocks
Inventory management is a two-way flow. Because of this, your hire businesses should keep a close eye on their stocks to ensure that hire assets have been returned on time and are immediately available for the next customer.
If your hire business fails to keep track of stock levels, your staff might not know what has been hired out and what hasn’t. With rental inventory management software, however, your staff will receive smart alerts when hired assets are returned, allowing them to keep a more accurate count of inventory.
3. Use real-time data
Your hire business can benefit greatly from real-time data such as traffic information and weather forecasts. This data can help your business respond quickly to changes in the environment and prevent potential mishaps when transporting hire assets.
Hire management software can provide real-time information to your hire business and even give customers alerts on extraneous elements that may delay the delivery of their hire assets, like adverse weather conditions.
4. Automate inventory management activities
Manual inventory management may, to an extent, work for small hire businesses, but for large-scale businesses, manual inventory management will be more of a hindrance.
Hire businesses of all sizes should transition to automated inventory management. This will remove the human element from many tasks, freeing up staff members so that they can focus on more strategic tasks and reducing the chances of human error.
Automation is the backbone of hire management software and it can allow your hire business to automate menial tasks such as tracking and reporting inventory levels and giving alerts when stock levels fall below a predetermined number.
5. Carry out inventory reviews
For efficient inventory control, your hire business must conduct regular inventory audits that will help you decide how to optimise inventory management capabilities and identify which hire assets are the most in demand.
With rental inventory software, your hire business can schedule routine hire audits to ensure that your inventory management is always on the ball.
Discover the benefits of rental inventory software
Inventory management can mean success or failure for a hire business, so it’s imperative that your hire business invests in improving inventory management capabilities.
If you’re looking for innovative inventory management, work with MCS Rental Software to access leading rental software solutions today.