A barcode inventory system can be used to track inventory in real-time as it uses existing barcodes as a unique identifier for each item, helping businesses catalogue and keep track of their stock levels, avoid over-ordering or under-ordering products and eliminating the need for manual data entry.

Why is it important?

Knowing what stock you have and where it’s being stored is an essential part of any business that is fulfilling customer orders. Without that information, picking and packing orders is a laborious and complicated task that can lead to errors and stock-outs, which both hinder operations.

For example, imagine you have a 200,000 sq ft warehouse space and thousands of products. The task of finding one specific product without knowing its exact location would be like finding a needle in a haystack and could take hours. In this instance, a barcode inventory system can help drive cost-efficient time savings across the whole process and mean your staff can find where products are located in seconds

1. Reduces Errors

A key benefit of a barcode inventory system is error reduction. Barcodes can be utilised throughout an item’s journey from receipt of the goods, movement around the warehouse and eventual pick and despatch. You can utilise barcode scanning to make sure your team are selecting the correct products in the correct quantities from the correct locations every time. This in turn leads to greater accuracy in reporting and visibility of stock levels in location.

2. Versatility

Barcode scanning can provide improvements in many areas. Many of us are used to the concept of product barcodes. However, they can also be used to verify locations, scan order IDs for instant despatch and provide a method of bulk quantity action by scanning carton or pallet IDs. This functionality in an inventory system is increasingly important – Mintsoft will be adding pallet and carton functionality in 2023 that will allow barcode IDs against mixed stock pallets and cartons as well as GS-1 support for SSCC labels and attribute scanning for batch and BBE dates.

3. Real-time data

Another benefit to the adoption of barcode scanning is real-time data sync – office-based staff can make decisions based on accurate data concerning stock movements. Need to know if a delivery has been received and is ready for sale? As soon as the team have completed the action, the system will have up-to-date information with no need for follow-up paperwork. This feature also leads to an increase in traceability through the system with a user ID and time logged against all movements.

4. Faster and cheaper employee training

Instead of providing full front-end training that can be costly and time-consuming, temporary or seasonal workers can be given access to just the key features they need via the system. For example, the Mintsoft scanning app can even provide verbal instructions prompting the user. This allows you to scale your workforce faster during peak periods.

Alongside inventory management within your warehouse for order fulfilment, barcode scanning can also speed up inbound delivery put-aways and returns processes, all contributing to faster and more efficient stock processes.

Mintsoft offers a barcode inventory system that utilises a barcode scanning app, that can be used on any mobile device, including smartphones and tablets. If you’d like to learn more about how Mintsoft’s mobile barcode inventory app can help with your inventory management, please book a personalised demo with one of our product experts.