Tag Archives: system

Business Recommendations, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights, Inventory Management software

Criteria for Stock Systems

When deciding to implement a detail-conscious system of stock tracking, every business has a minimum priority in its design.

The features of all stock-keeping must contain some version or form of the following:

Area Transfers – records created when goods are re-assigned to a different building or warehouse

Discrepancy Report – the final reference document produced that provides the comparison with the results of the previous inventory

Finished Goods Stock Take – the physical count of manufactured/assembled materials (conducted no less than once per month)

Finished Stock Return – receipt of sold items as individual quantity

In Process Stock Take – the physical count of items committed to incompletely manufactured/assembled materials (conducted no less than once per month)

Inter-Site Transfers – records created when goods are re-assigned to a different location within the same building or warehouse

Issuing – transactions that deficit the stock quantities on-hand

Item Voids – items removed from inventory due to breakage, expiration or recall

Label Reprint – once stock has been re-located its status in its new site is labeled ASAP

Pallet Summary – physical count of large-block storage containers

Raw Stock Return – receipt of sold items as individual quantity

Receipt – transactions that surplus the stock quantities on-hand

Remainders – stock that has been left over from other projects, including those stripped from sub-assemblies

Stock Take – the physical count of raw materials (conducted no less than once per month)

All comparative systems for inventory management shall consider and record accurately the above details, and maintain them in history for the system to be of any lasting value to your business.

For further details of a complete design for the management of inventory, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca for more information.

Business Recommendations, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights, Inventory Management

Features Required for Inventory Accuracy

When you have decided to implement a software system to make your inventory management a priority, the many details you have to consider to select the correct one. Before you arrive at the decision, you must know the features that will be the bare minimum requirements. The following is a checklist of the most important features you must possess to gain complete control over the inventory process of your company:

  • ‘Find’ and ‘Filter’ tools to aid in item location
  • ‘Where used’ feature for parts usage
  • Accept partial and over-deliveries
  • All data contained in industry-standard relational database
  • Alternative suppliers for parts
  • Automatic fulfillment of production shortfalls from non-production orders
  • Automatically determines shortages for mix of products
  • Automatically replenish minimum stock levels
  • Bills of Materials and Stores picking lists
  • Configurable user interface
  • Context sensitive on-line help
  • Control of display and order of fields in forms
  • Create product costings (including labour costs)
  • Display and printout of product structure
  • Export parts lists, stock, suppliers and categories in CSV format
  • Fractional quantities with user-defined precision
  • Full ‘referential integrity’ of cross-references within the database
  • Full multi-user networking with user names and passwords
  • Import parts lists, stock, suppliers and categories in CSV format
  • Integral backup and restore
  • Paper and electronic Users Guide including tutorial
  • Partial ordering available for accurate scheduling
  • Point and click creation of multi-level part lists
  • Print bin labels
  • Print Requests for Quotations and Orders
  • Produce customizable reports using Report Builder
  • Produce Production and Non-Production orders
  • Produce scheduled orders
  • Product items fully traceable back to originating orders (for ISO audits)
  • Release individual products from jobs to production
  • Reports include ‘filters’ allowing selective reporting
  • Re-use previous production jobs as template for new ones
  • Select a variety of products for a production job and allocate stock
  • Show outstanding orders
  • Standard Windows® editing throughout
  • Store orders and assembly lists for future reference
  • Track Works-in-Progress (WIPs)
  • Trial kitting allows ‘what if’ analysis (phantom kitting)
  • Undo stock allocation and ‘return to shelf’ capability
  • User-definable item units
  • User-defined currency and precision (decimal places)
  • User-defined fields on stock items
  • User-defined shortcut keys

For a robust and comprehensive package that includes all of the above features and more, visit www.simmssoftware.com or email sales@kcsi.ca to learn more about SIMMS 2012 Inventory Management software.

 

Business Recommendations, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights, Inventory Management software

Improving Your Gross Profit Margin


Profit is the vital factor in every company — it opens many avenues of expansion and contributes to the solution of almost all problems. SIMMS 2012 Inventory Management software helps you manage your profits by revealing your business’ gross profit margin.

A company’s gross profit margin is an assessment its efficiency in securing overall profit once the expenses of the cost of goods sold have been deducted. A higher GPM is more encouraging for the company — and any investors — in regard to its future earning potential. The control of overhead (including rent or mortgages, utilities, etc.) is crucial to a company trying to improve its GPM. The formula for its calculation is as follows:

GPM = Gross Profit ÷ Total Revenue

For illustration purposes, let’s calculate the gross profit margin of Company One based on numbers from its income statement:

$180,000.00 gross profit ÷ $420,000.00 total revenue = 0.42

Therefore, the gross profit margin for Company One is 42%, which is very good.

Several areas in which a company can improve its GMP are as follows:

1) Reduction of Administration Costs – management personnel overhead is the concern here. Again, the work done versus the expense to achieve the work is the ratio to be used here.

2) Reduction of Cost of Sales – there are expenses related to the sales of products or services, and can be reduced by selection of a less expensive labor force or purchase of less expensive materials.

3) Reduction of Debt – this can be done through finding and employing lower interest charges and any other structured financial advantages that can be achieved.

4) Reduction of Development and Research expenses – this should be rolled back to its level of return efficiency. Many businesses accept expenses here in the belief that speculation works best, but it should be based on returns from each separate project and its revenue generating potential.

5) Reduction of Effects of Depreciating Stock – Newer, more reliable items must be purchased and older pieces must be converted in any way possible to a minimum of what was spent to acquire them.

6) Reduction of Marketing Expenses – either a lowering or discontinuation of aspects currently employed toward advertising.

Visit www.simmssoftware.com or contact KCSI by email at sales@kcsi.ca to discover more about how SIMMS 2012 Inventory Management software can help you achieve your profit margin goals.

Business Recommendations, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights, Inventory Management software

Support for Your Clients

One of the best ways to provide support for your client base is to build upon the knowledge you have about who usually calls. Most often it’s the little things that your support representative provides that make all the difference. The personal things that are remembered about the fellow from the shipping department, the woman from the accounting office or “Charlie” in shipping. Perhaps you recall a birthday or they may have mentioned their children, or their favorite ball team. Such comments make them enjoy the process of calling, which in itself is something that many of them hesitate to do because they fear the issue is based on something they think they may have done wrong.

You must dismiss this concept from your mind and attitude as you talk — discuss it in terms that create the feeling that the two of you are on a quest to find the solution to a mystery. Every suggestion you make should be expressed as if it is an answer that probably isn’t correct, but it’s worth a try. Your tone should be that it’s an outside chance of being right; and if the idea happens to be correct then you mention that “nobody would have ever thought of it”. The result is that the caller is convinced that they didn’t forget something and that the solution was about something that was some sort of aberration. By retaining this approach, your customers will call more eagerly in future, which is an atmosphere that you must encourage.

In addition to the warmth of your greeting, your questions about how they are, and your professionalism, clients also need to know that there is an echelon of support in place; First Level will smoothly cede to Second Level, and so forth. The manner and procedures of support are something that all companies must set up in-house and demand from their entire support department. With this policy in place, the style must be the same: friendly, open and eager to help. The clients’ experience with your support department must be consistent in attitude and tone from bottom to top. Every level “supports” the next level — just as you support your clients.

Business Recommendations, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights, Inventory Management software

The Use of Warehouse Locations

Most companies that have not adapted over to specialty software for the control of their inventory management have “blind spots” occur in the accuracy of their counting procedures. If businesses are not careful, stock can go into a virtual void wherein personnel think that items are today exactly where they were two weeks before. Much can happen in two weeks and stock can be moved to an adjoining shelf to make room for newer arrivals and can thus cause counts to be inaccurate.

With a capability to “freeze” the stock during a scheduled stock count, SIMMS Inventory Management software isolates the discovery of these inexactitudes, and their adjustment so that the physical stock is re-placed to where it is supposed to be. Most tracking software treats inventory stock in a vague fashion. This form of physical count combined with a location-by-location checklist of all items down to the exactness of bins, shelves and drawers. SIMMS brings the precision and accuracy that you need for your business while providing physical transfer capability that allows a record any shelf-to-shelf  “bumps” so counting becomes easier than ever before.

Visit the SIMMS website today or email sales@kcsi.ca to learn more about how SIMMS can truly keep you on top of all your items all the time.

Business Recommendations, Company News, Increased Revenue, Industry Insights

What’s On Your Critical Checklist?

Recently a great number of successful businesses were requested to list the most important steps they had taken to improve their company in the previous twelve months. The resulting details can be applied to any company (with necessary adjustments for their respective industries or specialty services).

Ask yourself which of the following can be achieved by your company and then take steps to make the changes possible; if any business can improve on half of these areas, everyone will notice the improvements in the business.

So here (in alphabetical order) they are — twelve months, twelve improvements:

  • Accelerated turn-around time of orders

 

  • Created a more effective organizational structure

 

  • Improved order accuracy

 

  • Increased flexibility and agility

 

  • Increased productivity levels

 

  • Leveraged valuable information

 

  • Maximized the value of the contents of the warehouse by turning over every item a minimum of at least three times per year

 

  • Optimized work schedules

 

  • Prevented disruptions from shift-to-shift

 

  • Provided real-time interaction

 

  • Streamlined decision-making

 

  • Tracked performance updates

 

Now you know them, pick one and get on with it!

Business Recommendations, Industry Insights, Inventory Management software

Weekly Stock Checks

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Every business should be setup for a regular review of its stock. Owing to the number of transactions that take place on a daily basis, the practical period for checking that stock counts are accurate is the single work week.

Most stock can be checked either on the Friday or Saturday afternoon, Since most companies also perform a review to make sure they have stock onhand for orders to be processed early the following week, this weekly inventory check can be taken at the same time and orders completed and sent to the appropriate vendors.

Details to be noted in a weekly inventory are as follows:

1) Items On Hand (in each stock location)

2) Total Stock Count (per item)

3) Stock To Be Received (for orders already in system)

4) Transfers Needed (to complete orders)

5) Items On Hold (for Works-in-Progress queued to be sold)

6) Damaged Items

7) Overages Per Item (already received)

8) Variation Per Item (stock unsold since last stock check that do not show where they should be).

With a weekly check of each of these counts, you can quickly see whether your stock is sufficient for the following week, and before the end-of-week orders are finalized, you can update them to make sure the stock you’ll require for your customers will be available in your various locations. Two hours per week should be enough to keep your stock counts both accurate and will allow you to keep on top of any stock that has gone missing (thus enabling you to begin tracing the items for the weakness in your holding system).

SIMMS 2012 Inventory Management software is the best choice for you to perform stock counts for any required period. With a wide selection of stock reports, you can be certain that your current inventory counts — and their value — are always at your fingertips.

Inventory Management, Inventory Management software, Product News

SIMMS 2012’s Analytics

SIMMS 2012‘s Analytics give you access to important data to help you make business decisions by giving you valuable reports that are completely customizable and flexible for your company’s information demands.

Financial data can be included or restricted from your report contents so that those who need, or don’t need, to see your organization’s numbers. You can access deep analysis by organizing information with multi-level reporting, and define the information that is important to your business and analyze financial data by whatever criteria you apply.

Transactions are easily accessible and analyzed with precision across your entire organization with seamless integration with all accounting features in SIMMS 2012.

Discover more about the SIMMS 2012 Inventory Management Program and download a free, fully-functional 15-day SIMMS Inventory Software trial copy.

Accounting Software, Inventory Management, Product: How-To

Help Has Never Been Easier Than In SIMMS 2012

SIMMS Inventory and Accounting has always been one of the easiest programs to use. In its current form, it becomes also one of the easiest applications to learn. Version 2012‘s  SIMMS Help Online (SHO) takes help searching and indexing to an all new level.

A spill-down menu has been enhanced and revised so that every program feature is never more than a few mouse clicks away from being available. The multitude of SIMMS’ integral modules are easy to find and access, with more detailed information and how-to materials get the user the steps or explanation they need and back, just as quick, to the task at hand.

Check it out here.

 

 

Inventory Management

SIMMS’ SQL Assistant Is a Prime Tool for Efficiency

SIMMS Inventory Management software features a useful tool for administrators to access the SQL (Structured Query Language) database that holds the company’s data — The SQL Assistant.
Whether running up-to-date fixes provided by the SIMMS support department (service packs) or perhaps only to display the content and structure of the various tables in the database — most often done to provide the information to display data onto customized reports — the SQL Assistant is a valued aspect of a SIMMS administrator’s understanding and mastery of the overall software solution.

Administrators can, with the help of the SIMMS  Support Department, be given command lines in SQL that can be entered and run within the SQL Assistant screen to either access data or to make improvements or to reset features within the system. Complete and specific instructions are provided, and often times, a self-contained SQL format file is sent so that it only need be run to apply its changes.

In the SQL Assistant, users can run lines to check which users are currently logged into the system in case a system backup is pending, thus letting the administrator the names of those who will need to exit the system for this valuable security process.

Additionally, Administrators can make global changes to the status of stock within the system, such as changing items’ current location and move them to another just by running a couple of lines of SQL code. Changing items’ categories or subcategories can be just as easy, saving the administrator — or some other authorized user — a lot of manual data entry time. When run safely and wisely, the SQL Assistant makes quick and easy work of the job of managing the contents and accuracy of company data within SIMMS Inventory Management system.