There are a lot of ways businesses can waste money, from ineffective and thoughtless marketing campaigns to inefficient practices in the workplace. For any businesses that manufacture, transport, or sell goods, however, loss is always to be a leading cause of wasted money.
Here’s how to keep more of your goods and stop letting them disappear so freely.
Invest in effective storage
A lot of loss happens without anyone needing to touch your products in the first place. When they are left in storage for a long time, products can easily disappear. They can literally get lost in some cases, disappearing without a trace, or they can be lost through spoilage. It’s important to invest in effective storage systems, whether this is refrigerated storage space for the products that need it, or simply in better organization and labeling that makes it easier to ensure all products end up in the right place.
Know what you have and where it is
It might seem like more stock goes missing than actually does. If you’re not able to accurately keep a record of what you currently have, it can be tough to identify where it is at any given moment. Tracking tags on physical goods, digital inventory systems, and industrial scales to help you weigh quantities of certain resources can all help you be a lot more accurate about your inventory. When you have a better idea of how much you have on hand at any given moment, you can more quickly recognize when loss is taking place, allowing you to act faster.
Secure the supply chain
Another way that products can get lost throughout the supply chain is through transit. Products can get damaged and lost all the time. If you’re relying on fulfillment services to deliver your goods, it’s important to track the rates of lost items and to switch up your provider if they’re starting to let their standards slip. Otherwise, watch out for improper packing habits in your own warehouse if goods are starting to turn up damaged more often than not. This can range from poor packing of individual packages to incorrect stacking of cartons on pallets.
Get tough on theft
Theft is a very real concern in many retail, manufacturing, and fulfillment businesses, with both customers and your own employees potentially posing a risk. While you shouldn’t go as far as treating everyone as criminals, you should look at the evolutions in business security that you can make use of. Limiting access to your stock with recorded entry systems, smart CCTV, and inventory tracking devices can all help you better understand, combat, and prevent theft in your business when used well.
With the tips above, your business can address many of the major causes of loss that can lead to money going right down the drain. Which solutions work best will depend on how your business handles its goods, of course, but so long as you’re dealing with physical goods, you must also deal with the conundrum of loss.
