In the process of inventory, the quality of some commodities is affected by long storage time or improper storage. In order to effectively control the quantity of goods in stock and understand the quality of goods in the warehouse, it is necessary to check and check the storage places regularly or irregularly, which is the process of inventory.

The purpose of the inventory is mainly:

1. Find out the actual inventory quantity.

Due to various reasons, such as recording inventory quantity during receiving and sending, recording errors or omissions; The goods are damaged or lost during operation, and the inventory is wrong during acceptance and shipment; Wrong orders, duplicate orders, missing orders, etc. In the process of inventory, it often leads to the difference between the book inventory quantity and the actual inventory quantity. Through inventory, we can find out the problems, find out the reasons and adjust them in time.

2. Calculate the profit and loss of enterprise assets

The total amount of goods in stock directly reflects the use of current assets of enterprises. If the inventory is too high, the normal operation of working capital will be threatened, and the inventory amount is directly proportional to the inventory and its unit price, so the actual profit and loss of the enterprise can be accurately calculated through the inventory.

3. Find problems in commodity management.

Find out the reasons of profit and loss through inventory, find out the problems existing in operation and management, and take corresponding measures to improve the inventory management level and reduce losses.

Generally speaking, the contents of inventory mainly include the following items:

1. Quantity of goods

Find out the actual quantity of goods in the warehouse through the counting point, and check whether the book information of the inventory is consistent with the actual inventory quantity.

2. Commodity quality

Check whether the quality of inventory goods has changed, whether it has exceeded the validity period and shelf life, and whether there is a long-term backlog. If necessary, the goods must be technically inspected.

3. Storage conditions

Check whether the storage conditions meet the storage requirements of various commodities. Such as whether the stacking is reasonable and stable, whether the temperature in the warehouse meets the requirements, and whether all kinds of measuring instruments are accurate.

4. Inventory safety status

Check whether all kinds of safety measures, fire fighting and equipment meet the safety requirements, and whether the buildings and equipment are in a safe state.

4. Review the implementation of warehouse accounting.

Once the material account is inaccurate, it will definitely cause fatal harm to production and on-site production. Therefore, the management of the enterprise will carefully formulate the management measures for warehousing materials, and authorize the warehouse management personnel to carry out the material entry operation according to the regulations.

Although it is the natural duty of warehouse staff to make a good material account, it is inevitable that some warehouse staff have insufficient business awareness and sense of responsibility, or neglect their duties, or the habit of "procrastination" is difficult to change, which will make the material account very different.

In order to find the problem of "people" as early as possible, it is very necessary to warn and deal with it as early as possible, to alert the warehouse staff as early as possible, to correct their deviation habits as early as possible, and to audit regularly, especially irregularly. Looking back on the results, of course, it is better to carry out everything correctly. If there is any deviation, it can be remedied as soon as possible.

5 More effective warehousing and rectification

No one will deny that the warehouse should store good products, because the products needed for production must be good products, and the materials needed for production should be stored in the warehouse, which is definitely not dull materials.

The thinking is so clear, but it is often not. Because of their busy work, they are often in the process of "preparing for war", and the warehouse staff rarely check it in time, so that the defective products are not known yet, and the waiting materials have already occupied valuable warehouse positions unconsciously. In most factories, don't they often wait for materials together with urgently needed materials and reject products? Are all good products made in Qi Fei?

In order to make the warehouse more effective, discover the causes of defective products and materials earlier and seek anti-blocking measures, it is necessary to conduct physical inventory regularly to expose all potential problems.

Inventory steps

Generally, the inventory operation is carried out according to the following steps: preparation before inventory, determination of inventory time, determination of inventory method, training of inventory personnel, cleaning of inventory site, inventory, finding out the reasons for differences, and processing of inventory results. Inventory operation steps as shown in figure 5-6:

Inventory plan

(1) inventory planning stage

Many small and medium-sized enterprise inventory managers, due to lack of experience, did not make a good inventory plan, so they were in a mess, especially did not make an in-depth plan for the early stage of inventory, so that when the inventory was restored, the warehouse was still out of control, which delayed the recovery time and made the participants complain.

Generally speaking, the inventory plan should be drawn up and released one month before the resumption date. For example, if June 26th to June 30th is designated as the resumption (generally referred to as "large inventory", which means resumption), then the inventory plan should be established before May 3rd1. Only in this way can the warehouse staff be required to prepare for the perfect execution of the re-order; At the same time, the production site is also required to adjust production operations a few days before the resumption of trading, and gradually reach the level of "clearance" to facilitate inventory (because "work in process" is the most difficult to "price"). In addition, purchasing personnel and outsourcing processing personnel can have more specific instructions to analyze inventory, draw conclusions of storage planning, and provide them to warehouse personnel so that they can integrate the functions of storage consolidation and storage planning in the pre-inventory stage.

Skills related to inventory planning

First of all, the time schedule should be carefully considered. For example, calculate how many hours each pre-order organizer can actually make a pre-order every day (because the warehousing operation is still going on every day, it may only take 2 to 3 hours to make a real pre-order operation every day), and how many items * * * have, and how many days will it take to complete the pre-order. To really coordinate the normal warehousing operation of all departments, we must focus on what time of day to avoid the trouble of booking in advance. It is impossible for warehouse personnel to "find their own way" with one order. In addition, production activities should also plan when to start "shrinking", feed as much as possible a few days before the resumption of production, hand it over to the warehouse as much as possible, and "clear the field" as much as possible.

It is equally important to control the pre-inventory stage, so more detailed planning is also needed. Generally, the pre-inventory organizer will draw up the pre-inventory schedule of each storage area (even storage space) by himself, and the inventory manager will know (feasibility and adjustment) and then control it accordingly, which is really efficient.

Step 2: Determine the inventory time.

Generally speaking, in order to ensure the consistency of accounts and goods, the more times the goods are counted, the better. However, the inventory needs manpower, material resources and financial resources, and sometimes a large-scale comprehensive inventory may cause a temporary pause in production. Therefore, it is very necessary to determine the inventory time reasonably. The key reason for the profit and loss of inventory results lies in the mistakes in the warehousing process. The more frequent warehousing, the more errors will be caused.

When determining the inventory time, we should not only prevent the loss caused by long inventory time, but also consider the characteristics of limited resources and rapid flow of goods in distribution centers. While investing as little resources as possible, we should strengthen inventory control. We can determine different inventory time according to the different characteristics, value, circulation speed and importance of commodities, and the inventory interval can be daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. For example, the main commodities of Class A should be counted once a day or once a week; Class b goods are counted every two or three weeks; Class C unimportant commodities can be counted once a month. In addition, it must be noted that the duration of each inventory should be as short as possible, the overall inventory should be completed within 2-6 days, and the inventory date will generally be selected:

1. On the eve of financial settlement. Calculate the profit and loss through inventory and find out the financial situation;

2. Off-season. Due to less storage in off-season, business is not busy, inventory is easier, less resources are invested, and manpower mobilization is more convenient.

Step 3: Determine the inventory method.

Due to the different occasions and requirements of inventory, the methods of inventory are also different. In order to meet the needs of different situations and complete the inventory operation quickly and accurately, the determined inventory method should be conducive to inventory and should not be confused.

1. Book counting method

The tent inventory method is to establish an "inventory account card" for each commodity, and then record the quantity and related information of each commodity in and out of the book, and summarize the book inventory balance one by one.

2. Spot inventory method

On-site inventory method is a kind of physical inventory method for inventory goods. According to the different time and frequency of inventory, on-site inventory is divided into final inventory and periodic inventory.

(1) final inventory method

Ending inventory refers to the method of uniformly counting the quantity of all commodities at the end of accounting. Because the final inventory is to complete all the goods at one time, the workload is large and the requirements are strict. Usually, it is carried out by partition and grouping. Zoning is to divide the whole storage area into responsibility areas, and different areas are counted, checked and supervised by special teams. Therefore, a team usually needs at least one person to count the quantity, fill in the inventory receipt, review the quantity, and register the results of the review. The third person checks whether the previous two counts are consistent or not, and checks the inconsistent results. After all the inventory is completed, check with the book figures reflected in the computer or account book.

(2) periodic inventory method

Circular inventory refers to the method of selling a part of commodities every day and week, and counting each commodity at least once in a cycle. Periodic inventory usually checks more high-value or important commodities, and the supervision is stricter, while the number of inventory counts for low-value or less important commodities can be as little as possible. Periodic inventory only counts a small amount of goods at a time, so usually only the keeper needs to check the inventory data himself, check the problems according to the inventory procedure, find out the reasons, and then make adjustments. You can also use a special circular inventory list to register the inventory situation.

The advantages and disadvantages of ending inventory and periodic inventory are compared in Table 5-8:

Table 5-8 Comparison of Differences between Ending Inventory and Periodic Inventory

In order to get the most correct inventory situation and ensure the correct inventory, we can use the method of limiting the book inventory to be equal to the spot inventory to find out the actual reason for the error.

Step 4: Train inventory personnel.

The training of inventory personnel is divided into two parts: first, all personnel are trained in inventory methods and operation procedures, so that inventory operators can understand the inventory purpose, the filling of forms and documents; The second is to train the re-checking and supervision personnel to identify goods, make them familiar with the inventory site and inventory goods, supervise the inventory process, and review the inventory results.

Clean up the inventory site.

Before the start of inventory operation, the inventory site must be sorted out to improve the efficiency of inventory service industry and the accuracy of inventory results. Cleaning work mainly includes the following aspects:

1. Before counting, the goods that have been accepted and put into storage should be classified and the goods that have not been accepted and put into storage should be clearly distinguished to avoid confusion:

2. Before the storage yard is closed, notice should be given in advance to prepare the goods that need to be delivered out of the warehouse in advance;

3. Account cards, documents and materials should be uniformly sorted and settled, so as to find problems in time and nip in the bud;

4. Identify deteriorated and damaged goods in advance. Sort out the goods piled up in the storage place, especially collect and sort out the scattered goods so that they can be counted when taking stock. On this basis, commodity warehousing personnel will make advance orders, find problems in advance, and nip in the bud.

stock

Inventory can be divided into two parts.

(1) Pre-disk stage

Pre-inventory is not limited to warehouse personnel, but should also be extended to the production site, because there are inevitably WIP in the production site. In principle, semi-finished products, surplus materials and finished products should be returned to the warehouse before the inventory (but some factories still stay at the scene for inventory), and of course, some "money-making tools should also be counted". In addition, the organizers of purchasing and outsourcing processing can't stay out of it, because there are probably some money-making tools, such as molds. Of course, some materials are sent out for outsourcing processing and still remain in the outsourcing factory, which is also our asset and included in the inventory.

In the pre-inventory stage, the inventory leader first makes a "pre-inventory list" according to the "perpetual inventory account" of the computer or accounting department, and submits it to the warehouse (or the directly responsible object such as the site) for "inventory" of the due quantity. At the same time, rearrange the storage location according to the new storage location, hang up the inventory list, record the relevant fields of pre-inventory, and report the pre-inventory results (including the difference between inventory surplus and inventory deficit) to the inventory supervisor. Of course, you can also make a "inventory list" directly by the inventory host and give it to the pre-inventory organizer instead of the "pre-inventory list".

The director of inventory is not idle at all. In addition to reviewing the pre-inventory, he also needs to analyze and investigate the differences in the pre-inventory and take remedial measures.

1 pre-opening line table

Pre-inventory list

Category:-Pre-preferential period: year and month

There should be in the previous period, the current period and the current period.

Project Name Specification Unit Inventory Quantity Purchase Quantity Shipment Quantity Inventory Quantity

In the above table, the author suggests printing one copy for each category, so that the warehouse organizer of this category (each piece) can use it conveniently in the pre-inventory operation (because general warehouses are stored in the same storage area according to the principle of the same category). "Pre-Inventory Quantity" and "Current Issue Quantity" in this field can be omitted.

According to the "pre-inventory list", it is the most reasonable way for warehouse personnel to count one by one in the pre-inventory stage and then hang up the "inventory list".

(2) Inventory list

Inventory of property

Material inventory sheet number

Abbreviation of category code

Material code

Title of article

standard

Measurement should be pre-stocked.

Pre-date checker

Inventory surplus (deficit)

repeated

Disk date checker

Actual inventory surplus (deficit)

material stock

Status □ Qualified Product G

□ defective product b

□ spare material d

be filled/suffused/brimming with

The "inventory list" is basically divided into three parts.

The first part is a general field, including inventory number, material number, product name and specification, unit plus expired inventory unit. Among them, the most important thing to pay attention to is "inventoryNo". , generally printed before the inventory, the order is controlled by the inventory host. Because basically the materials scattered in the storage area have to be returned to the same storage area one by one, it is more reasonable to have an inventory list for each item.

Part II "Pre-sale" related fields are filled in by the pre-sale organizer, with the amount of "pre-sale" or "pre-sale" plus the signature of the pre-seller (including date and time).

The third part is the related fields of "recovery", which are filled in by the receiver, including "actual recovered amount" and "surplus" or "deficit" and signed at the same time.

Most "inventory sheets" or "inventory cards" are printed with slightly hard cardboard and can be tied up with iron wire. Most of them are designed in triplicate. The first copy is still hung on the material shelf (it will be cancelled after the settlement is completed), the second copy is torn off by the re-seller and handed over to the inventory manager, and the third copy is torn off by the pre-seller and handed over to the inventory manager, with clear responsibilities as feedback information. This is the best order.

Precautions for pre-disks

Pre-inventory is the most basic work, and it also needs "exquisiteness" and "certainty", otherwise the overall inventory will not be easy to perform efficiently.

First of all, we should follow the "pre-inventory plan" and find the storage areas and storage areas one by one in order. It is best to find the inventory scattered in other storage areas and return it to the fixed storage area. At the same time, according to the concept of warehousing rectification, distinguish defective products from defective products (if they must be moved, a separate inventory list needs to be established), sort out scattered numbers in containers, and discard empty containers to facilitate the inventory operation again.

The inventory supervisor should also stare at the "pre-inventory schedule" every day and cross-check it with the third "inventory list" submitted to control the progress. Never "graze the cows". If necessary, go to the warehouse to check and confirm.

(3) Review stage

Once the pre-loading disk is completed, you can enter the re-loading stage. The resumption work is mostly assigned by the inventory host to a department person who has nothing to do with the responsibilities of the inventory department. For example, in the material warehouse, personnel, business, design and other departments, most of them are responsible for using force and fertilizer, rather than purchasing or quality control, because the latter two are closely related to the material warehouse and are suspected of being "Gua Tian Li Xia".

The re-inspection work is relatively simple, and the review is carried out according to the "inventory list" in the pre-inventory stage. The buyer can ask the seller to unload the goods one by one, make an in-depth inventory, then record the actual situation and fill in the relevant fields of "recovery". Usually, the "Inventory List" will be torn up and returned to the inventory host.

More responsible resellers will further review the quality status of materials (even the status of materials in storage time) and report the response, which is certainly worth encouraging.

Matters needing attention in reopening business

It is relatively simple to resume quotation. Generally, the concept of "sampling" is used for detailed investigation, and each item is very comprehensive. In other words, every item should be "stocked", even if it is skimmed (the total number of containers can be obtained by multiplying the number of standard containers, but it is necessary to check whether the containers are "implemented" for rectification). However, every few items must be specified in detail, that is, the pre-stocker is required to unload items from the storage space and count them one by one to confirm the accuracy of the pre-stocker. If you find many "unrealized" points, you can report to the inventory moderator and ask for a new pre-inventory.

Step 7: Find out the reason for the difference.

Inventory will expose the operational errors accumulated over a period of time and the discrepancies between accounts and things caused by other reasons. When it is found that the accounts are inconsistent and the difference exceeds the allowable error, the reason for the difference should be traced immediately.

Generally speaking, the reasons for inventory variance mainly include the following aspects:

1. Bookkeeper's quality is not high, and there are mistakes and omissions when entering data;

2. The management system and process of accounting processing system are not perfect, which leads to inaccurate data of goods;

3. There are omissions, repetitions and errors in the inventory process, which leads to errors in the inventory results;

4. The data before the inventory is not settled, resulting in inaccurate book figures;

5. Incorrect operation;

6. The goods are damaged or lost due to the negligence of the inventory personnel.

Step 8: Process inventory results

After finding out the reason, in order to keep the book number consistent with the physical number through inventory, it is necessary to adjust the inventory profit and loss together with the scrapped products. In addition to the profit and loss in quantity, the prices of some commodities will be adjusted through inventory. After the supervisor has reviewed these differences, the correction table shown in Table 5-9 can be used for correction.

Table 5-9 Inventory Quantity and Price Increase and Decrease Profit and Loss Correction Table

Inventory improvement and management performance improvement

Inventory should not be limited to the settlement of assets and the use of financial statements, but should have a higher-level goal, that is, to improve the problem of material management and enhance the level of material management; In particular, "on-site inventory" is a manual work, and production and marketing activities even have to stop. It is impossible without careful calculation.

In order to describe this concept more deeply, the author wants to discuss it from three major directions: "storage planning", "storage rectification" and "problem mining analysis", and also hopes to give more reflection and review to the practitioners engaged in storage management.

Practice of (1) warehouse planning

For the general processing and assembly industry, the sales situation will inevitably change, as will the production, and of course the means of production will inevitably change. Products that have been in great demand in the past six months or a year may now be a spent force, or even a "spare box", so adopting a strategy of low inventory or no inventory is the right way. Therefore, its storage space must not be occupied as usual, and it is even possible to combine multiple items of this material into a storage space.

We can also imagine in the same way that the storage of old materials changed after design changes should be reduced, or even moved to areas to be treated, such as dead material areas, which is the right way, instead of occupying huge storage of main materials as in the past. In addition, for products whose life cycle has been predicted to the end of the period, the related materials have increased greatly due to the increase in product demand or new materials whose design has changed. These materials must be given more storage space in order to have enough inventory capacity, and they must be placed in an easy-to-get storage area (this is the concept of quick consumption).

Because of this change, regular storage planning has become extremely meaningful, which is of great help to the use efficiency of warehouses and the level of production preparation of materials. Of course, if it is a factory with stable production plan and little change and high material versatility, it is another matter.

The basic idea of warehouse location planning is to do a good job in the next six months (or one year) first. Production and marketing forecast is based on forecasting the monthly output of each product, expanding the "average monthly required material quantity" of each required material item according to BOM, and then comparing it with the "lead time" to get the appropriate "inventory level". Finally, according to the inventory level of each item, the container capacity and arrangement, as well as the number of units stored for life, are converted for reference when configuring each storage area.

Because the storage planning has the significance of reconstruction, storage and relocation need a lot of time, so the author suggests that the on-site inventory should be used in the pre-inventory stage.

After the implementation of warehousing planning, its specific benefits are that the main material storage area is more "production-oriented", because both idle materials and unused materials are eliminated, and the main body is "materials needed for production". Secondly, it will reduce the trouble of inaccurate material accounts. Because enough storage space has been allocated for materials with large demand, warehouse staff will naturally not leave them everywhere.

(2) Carry out comprehensive and in-depth warehousing rectification practice.

As mentioned above, the goal of warehouse consolidation is to check and adjust materials and accounts, refine the storage location of containers (to avoid puffiness, which makes it difficult to judge the real inventory), plus the removal of dead materials and the excavation and disposal of bad materials.

Of course, this kind of warehousing rectification can also make it difficult to implement the rectification work that should be carried out every day through busy daily work; Moreover, many factories do not have the concept and system requirements of independent inventory.

Therefore, it is also a necessary remedial measure to simply carry out the physical inventory for half a year. In addition, even if the cycle inventory has been done on weekdays, isn't it better to use the field inventory?

(3) the development and analysis of the problem

Material management is an ancient and traditional management work. However, if it lasts for a long time, there will always be problems, and the original problems and troubles often cannot be cured.

Because the quality of material management is seriously related to production, sales and profits, we should make great efforts to do a good job in material management. Few managers can predict where the problem occurs, and can deeply track and analyze the causes of the problem in order to seek countermeasures. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to take advantage of the opportunity of actual inventory, and at the same time, thoroughly investigate its problems and track and analyze its reasons. Because only in this way can we plan effective countermeasures and improve the level of material management.

According to the author's experience, in the process of field inventory, careful inventory host can find the following problems:

1. The inventory was found to be less than the book quantity during the pre-counting, and then it was tracked to the outer warehouse stored in the non-main warehouse.

This is a warning that the warehousing business is no longer certain. If it is used by a "willing heart", it will become a loss that should not happen.

2. The "old materials" after the design change have a high occupancy rate.

This is a problem of system and the implementation of "first in, first out". It is necessary to immediately review the disposal rules of old materials of transformers and strengthen the "first in, first out" technology when necessary.

3. The proportion of inferior products is very high.

This is also a big warning, indicating that there is a problem with the storage environment, or it may be that the conditions of "incoming inspection" are not strict enough to allow "perishable" materials to enter the warehouse.

4. Generally, the proportion of idle materials is high.

This means regular storage consolidation and regular inventory.

5. In some places, materials (or warehouse organizers) do not allow serious accounts.

This seems to tell us some information, either the warehouse organizer's execution is biased or the standard container must be used.

Of course, it won't be just the five situations listed above. As long as you are an experienced material supervisor and have a detailed logical concept, you are sure to find out more problems and reasons. What we are concerned about now is how to make a deeper analysis, find out the countermeasures and what skills can be used. This is an area that deserves our full play.

Counting inventory to improve the level of material management

In order to achieve accurate material accounts and smoothly supply the materials needed for production scheduling, it is absolutely not enough to rely on semi-annual on-site inventory. We must seek a more frequent and flexible way, which is the constant time inventory method.

Practice of 1 cycle inventory

Basically, this is an independent management auxiliary operation within the warehouse, which aims at warehouse consolidation and material ledger maintenance. Although it is called autonomous operation, the author still suggests that it should be included in the guidelines of material management system, and warehouse personnel should be clearly required to abide by it, and senior supervisors should try their best to check its implementation.

First of all, we must establish the cycle time. The author suggests that it is best to cycle once a month, which means that there is an opportunity to be counted once a month. Of course, this is only a principle, and we might as well adjust it. For example, in an "inventory-based production factory", materials are highly versatile and the level of safety stock is relatively high, so it is not necessary to cycle them every two or three months, especially if the daily material accounts are quite accurate.

Secondly, there should be an implementation plan for periodic inventory, which is generally drawn up by the organizer of the warehouse "category" and approved by the warehouse supervisor. Under this plan, it is mainly based on the inventory schedule of each place (equal to each item), that is, which place (or item) to go to on which day, as the basis for implementation and audit.

As for the time for making inventory, it is generally within one hour before and after the end of daily field work (routine work), or within one hour after work, but inventory can also be started one hour before work (for example, at 4 pm). Because under normal circumstances, the "normal distribution" work is rarely carried out at this time, just to sort out and rectify.

The "write-off" method is often used in the regular inventory of this place (goods), and the number of containers (boxes, bags and bags) is multiplied by the packaging standard to get the "actual inventory quantity", which is then compared with the inventory control card (or control account book). If there is any abnormality, it will be further analyzed and traced. Finally, it will be adjusted in the form of "Inventory Adjustment Doc".

In addition, we can do more in-depth warehouse rectification work, such as the inspection and movement of dead materials, the detection and treatment of deterioration and defective products, the breakage of containers, etc., which can better improve the level of warehouse management. This is especially necessary in the assembly industry.

2. Continuous material inventory for production scheduling

The author has always stressed that "the purpose of warehousing materials is production and use, not the inventory assets themselves". At this time, the annotation of this idea is completely seen. As long as the materials needed for production scheduling cannot be supplied smoothly, it doesn't make much sense how many materials are stored in the warehouse and how big the warehouse is.

How to do regular inventory? We might as well consider it from the standpoint of production management, especially after the "detailed production schedule" of production management is completed, calculate the required material items and requirements immediately, go to the warehouse for safekeeping, and check whether the material accounts of these required materials are accurate, quality and sufficient. Isn't it more efficient and meaningful to pay attention to and arrange the inventory of required materials than the inventory of all materials?

Of course, it is more efficient to expand the scope of processing and extend the detailed schedule from one week to one month. Some companies regard the materials needed for orders or production batches as the constant inventory objects.

As for "who" will carry out the work? The author suggests that production management scheduling should participate or even dominate. Some factories allow the production site supervisor to "care" about the actual situation of the scheduled materials in the warehouse, which is quite practical. Some factories stipulate that people are not allowed to enter the warehouse, which seems unnecessary.