Managing Bulk Inventory with SIMMS

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Everyone’s bulk stock inventory is unique. It can expand and contract with changes in temperature. It is bought and sold in a variety of measurements. Over time, its molecular composition can change. And, when products are blended, one plus one doesn’t necessarily equal two. That is why controlling the storage, measurement, and movement of bulk inventory is a complex supply chain issue. You need a solution that can effectively manage high-volume bulk inventory transactions — from original purchase through blending, storage, packaging, and sale.

You automatically correct for the impact of changes to the system conversion to standard volume based on product- and industry-specific algorithms for both domestic and international markets. You tailor flexible reporting options to convert industry-standard quantities to a company standard you define for financial and regulatory reporting.

SIMMS provides you with flexible reconciliation capabilities to pinpoint inventory gains and losses  before they become significant. Inventory management tools enable you to adjust those levels and automatically record the resulting data in the inventory and financial accounts you designate. And, because SIMMS 2013 is a comprehensive system that integrates with sales, purchasing, and business financials applications, you can improve customer service along with your inventory accounting.

For more information, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca today!

Direct Advantages of Using SIMMS

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Backed by 25 years of experience in the retail industry, KCSI’s flagship software solution, SIMMS 2013 Inventory Management helps you streamline your point of sale, stay on top of your inventory, keep track of your customers, improve your purchasing decisions, manage your accounts, lower your costs, and boost your profits.

While being already an affordable solution, SIMMS can actually save you money through increased efficiency and lower operating costs. Fewer errors at the point-of-sale and reduced shrinkage mean fewer losses. Faster processing and shorter training time mean your staff is more productive. Improved inventory control means less money tied up in inventory and faster turn rates. All of which add up to real savings for you.

Right out of the box, SIMMS is fully-loaded with the essential features you need to handle every aspect of your business. It covers all the bases with point-of-sale, inventory management, customer tracking, purchasing, sales history, and includes interfaces to your favorite accounting solutions, allowing your store records and books to stay synched. KCSI even provides baseline data to help you get started right away.

SIMMS Inventory Software is ready to expand when you are, with optional extras that you can add as your needs grow. Install the kitting (BOM) Option for additional kitting functionality, or Receivables Option to carry your own accounts. Install the OR plug in the data collector Option to unplug your operations. Add Basic Accounting for accounting software that’s truly integrated. These and other SIMMS Software modules – like General Ledger, E-store, Fulfillment Management, and more—let SIMMS help manage your business.

Visit www.simmssoftware.com today for more information on gaining The SIMMS Advantage.

New Features in SIMMS 2013

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We have enhanced receipt of goods to allow you to receive multiple lots for the same item in different lines and it will still count against the purchase order, i.e. if your purchase order has one line entry for 50 widgets and you receive 10 with lot 1, and 10 with lot 2 and 30 with lot 3 (3 different line item entries in the receipt) as long as the receipt location is the same as what was entered in the purchase order, SIMMS will show the purchase order as closed and fully received.

In Point of Sale, we have added the ability to park sales. We have implemented a new ‘Ring Up Sales’ button in the top left corner of the POS window. When you click that button, it opens a new POS window. You can start new transactions from this window while the old window is still open in the background. When you wants to continue the old transaction, just close the new POS window and start working in the old window.

In SIMMS Online, we have added an Item Manager, you can now easily view and search for your items, create new items, upload documents related to items, select existing items, and/or drill down to edit the basic information.

For more information on additional new features and enhancements in SIMMS 2013, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca.

Crucial Accounting Formulas

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For any business that handles goods for sale, the following formulas are crucial to maintaining proper business standards:

• Average cost =       Total cost of units    
Number of units bought

• Break-even volume =                             Fixed Costs              
Sales price – Variable cost per unit

• Closing stock = opening stock + purchases ? sales

• Cost of products (goods) sold = opening stock + net purchases ? closing stock

• Gross profit = sales revenue ? cost of units sold

• Reorder level = lead time demand ? stock on order

• Value of stock = number of units in stock × unit value

SIMMS 2013 Inventory Management software helps business owners of all sizes keep on top of their inventory and its accuracy for the benefit of their company.

Visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca today for more information on how SIMMS 2013 can help you.

Calculating Safety Stock

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Safety stock becomes necessary to help you avoid ‘stock outs’ if the rate of consumption increased and/or the lead time gets extended from the values considered for your replenishing system.

A simple way of establishing the safety stock would be to find out the above two variations that could normally occur over a period of time in terms of additional quantity of stock to be maintained. Lead Time is the time which supplier takes in ordering the items.]

1) When consumption Variation is very high:
Safety Stock = (Maximum rate of consumption – Normal rate of Consumption) X Lead Time.

2) When lead time Variation is very high:

Safety Stock = Normal consumption rate X (Maximum Lead time – Normal Lead time)

Safety stock is calculated using the following formula:
Safety Stock = (Maximum Daily Usage ? Average Daily Usage) × Lead Time

Reorder Points can be established based on the knowledge of your Safety Stock. The formula for the Reorder Point is as follows:

Average Lead Time X Average Demand + Safety Stock.

For a ready solution to your safety stock and reorder point needs, SIMMS Inventory Management software handles all of your needs. Visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca.

Tracking Your Manufacturer’s Lots

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The ability to track serialized and lot-related parts to a customer is important for warranty and service management. SIMMS Inventory Management software provides the ability to create serial numbers and manufacturer lots at any time during manufacturing. Finished products are assigned serial numbers and/or manufacturing lots and when shipped to the customer, the serial numbers and manufacturing lots used are saved to history, providing their traceability against the original customer order.

The ability to track component lots from raw material to finished product shipped to customers is a key requirement for many companies. SIMMS 2013 provides this functionality for either stocked parts. Upon receipt of lots from a vendor or from manufacturing, lot traceability provides where-used and lots-used visibility. An optional feature is the ability to designate a group of attributes that can be collected and tracked for each lot. These attributes follow the lot for the history of the lot record in the system, providing for historical quality references even after shipment.

SIMMS empowers you to use Manufacturer’s Lots to:

  • Build kits using items with assigned lots
  • Issue your lots manually or have SIMMS automatically issue from lots with the oldest expiration dates first or by earliest lots created/received
  • Produce a comprehensive lot activity history
  • Quickly generate Production Lot Reports
  • Receipt of multiple lots for the same item, or multiple items in one transaction
  • Serial number tracking (organized by serial number or lot), including user-defined serial numbers (in place of, or in addition to, original serials)
  • Traceability of lots on every level, from vendor through to customer

For more information about manufacturer’s lots in SIMMS, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca.

Checks for Items and Orders

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A great deal of materials run in and out of your inventory storage locations and many can be mislaid, mis-slotted or can simply go missing. To help your inventory department/team get better at their jobs, we recommend the following ideas be implemented on a schedule known only to the management department:

1) Perform random and detailed checking of loads on outbound trucks at the dock.

2) At least twice each month, call a driver back in after she/he has left the facility. Thoroughly check the load. Check drivers on a random basis.

3) Perform receiving by appointment coupled with a random detailed checking of incoming loads.

4) Commit deliberate errors. Discover what your staff does if, for example, you see that more finished goods than the shipping order calls for reach the platform? Will the shipping clerk return the excess to stock? Will she/he try to divert it for personal use (perhaps in collusion with a truck driver)? Will the clerk simply ship the order without ever knowing that the excess existed?

5) If the bookkeeper and the accounts receivable clerk are not dependable, alert, and honest, disaster can result. Check them by withholding an invoice from each of them and watching to see what they do. Will they miss the invoice? Will they realize that a missing invoice means lost revenue and call it to your attention?

6) Unannounced inspections are another excellent method of checking your preventive procedures. Such inspections are most effective during overtime periods or when the second or third shift is working. For example, one owner-manager popped up on the shipping platform after the second shift left. He noticed a loaded truck parked at the platform and ordered it unloaded. The cartons in the rear were legitimate deliveries, but he found the front half of the truck crammed with stolen goods. The checker, who was hired to see that such stealing did not happen, had gone to sleep and let the accommodating driver load his own truck.

Once employees understand that there is an ongoing effort to discover and hunt down the causes of inventory discrepancies, they will also understand that management is watching. The resulting benefits to your business will make all this checking and testing worthwhile.

SIMMS 2013 and Sales Data

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As SIMMS is adopted for use, sales analysis information will become readily accessible tools, improving decision-making and profit analysis. The conduct of sales transactions, filling of backorders, and transfers of stock to where it is required enables SIMMS users to make improvements to sales campaign and inventory management criteria.

Requests for quotes (RFQs) and order placements are quick since necessary information either already exists in the system or is provided on-the-spot. Shipping information, costs, available inventory, prices specific to the customer, status of ordered items, and quantity pricing is all at hand on a single screen. SIMMS’ sales information is there where it is needed so that important decisions and processes can be implemented to maintain efficient service and accuracy for the benefit of both your business and your customers.

Sales order and quote histories are available, keeping information readily available for sales staff during calls and communications with customers. Exact stock details make sales history a useful tool to allow customer satisfaction to remain a primary goal. Consequently, warehousing personnel can easily process shipments, track their contents and provide all answers to all questions that may arise.

Sales performance can be compared across countries, competitors, therapies and products—all segmented by distribution channel. Follow trends. Keep track and see what’s happening on a longitudinal scale. Again, pricing intelligence and tracking and analyzing your data in an ongoing way allows you to have both the facts and the feel for what’s happening, which will make better prepared to deal with what’s coming.

To learn how SIMMS can help you stay on top of what your sales pattern is saying, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca today.

Risk Assessment in the Warehouse

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Every business should perform a risk assessment in their storage areas. The inspection team need to assess every – and any – type of risk to determine the likelihood of each event occurring and its potential impact on each department if it did occur.

Here follows the possible threats can be broken down into two main groups:

1. Threats likely to occur within the facility
2. Threats likely to occur in the surrounding area

Likelihood needs to be assessed based on the following factors:

Error-based—Is there anything that could result from poor training, poor maintenance, poor safety practices, misconduct, substance abuse, or fatigue?

Geographical—Is the facility close to a flood plain; seismic faults; dams; controversial organizations such as research institutions or abortion clinics; or nuclear power plants?

Historical—What types of emergencies have occurred at this facility, this community, this region?

Physical—What is the building made of? What, and how much, is stored in the facility?

Regulatory—What emergencies or hazards (such as hazardous material spills) are you regulated to deal with?

Technological—What could result from a process or systems failure caused by fire, explosion, release of toxic fumes, loss of communications, or power failure?

Once the risk assessment is complete, the team must recommend the contingencies for lessening all types of risks within and surrounding the warehouse. The risk assessment being performed, and improvements being suggested, can both be beneficial factors in lowering insurance rates for your company and your inventory.