Neeco Attended the Best Practices for Inventory Management Summit 2022

In late February of 2022, Nicolas Vanderput, Supply Chain Data Scientist and co-Founder of Sku Science hosted a discussion for industry leaders entitled “Best Practices for Inventory Management.” He was joined by Barry Kukkuk, President of Netstock, an industry leading supply chain planning solutions provider. The two shared insights gathered from decades of experience in supply chain management with a collection of industry leaders.

Martin Pokorny, Neeco’s Warehousing Team Leader, was in attendance to contribute to and learn from the other inventory management specialists in attendance. The presentation focused on strategies those businesses with successful inventory management structures are utilizing today like proactive vs. reactive inventory management, automated systems to help reduce human error, and the need for industry specific expertise to evaluate the quality of data entered into those systems.

A decade ago, inventory managers could employ reactive strategies and find success. The speakers and attendees all confirmed that with the introduction of companies like Amazon and the nearly instantaneous deliveries their consumers have grown to expect, these measures are no longer suitable to meet client demands and mitigate inventory risk. Proactive inventory management strategies are needed to be competitive in the inventory management field.

How then, do companies develop a proactive system? The presenters explained that automation is key. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software should be used to gather and analyze data about inventory to make smarter decisions. However, implementing ERP does not necessarily guarantee a company will meet their inventory management needs. All the industry leaders in attendance agreed, it is not sufficient to collect data, but rather the right data must me employed.

The solution, revealed by Kukkuk and Vanderput, is combining automated ERP with the right labor force. A workforce with industry insights is an integral asset for managing supply chain systems effectively. At Neeco we have paired our industry leading ERP solution, Protrack with our Managed Services and Warehousing teams to deliver the most time and cost-efficient solutions for every project.

Pokorny and the rest of the Neeco staff in attendance were grateful for the opportunity to share and learn dynamic strategies from other inventory managers across various industries. Neeco plans to utilize the multitude of tactics discussed as well as share them with our clients and partners.