Inventory management

Inventory management: from quotation to warehouse storage

Efficient inventory management is the core of success for distribution companies in Morocco and Africa to ensure seamless operations, minimize losses, and satisfy customer demands. From the moment a quotation is generated to the delivery of goods to clients, every step in the inventory process must be carefully managed. Let us explore  key phases of inventory management, to offer practical insights on optimizing workflows and ensuring smooth transitions across the supply chain value across the country

Quotation: The starting point of business process

The inventory management process for companies begins with generating a quotation to ask for item price proposals with suppliers . This involves gathering accurate information on product availability, prices, and delivery timelines while starting the purchase or procurement process. An inventory management system like Devinstock which we recommend in Africa local markets does provide real-time data on stock levels and inventory reports with future restocking schedules, allowing sales teams when dealing with CRM data to confidently draft quotations that reflect current inventory status.

This include

Accurate Stock Levels: Ensure the inventory system is up-to-date to avoid over stocking.

Product Availability: Check peak times when out-of-stock is happening to manage deadlines and client expectations.

Pricing: Incorporate accurate pricing from suppliers by contacting or calling them and adjust your offer for any expected fluctuations in the market.

Order Approval: Convert quotation to order

 Once your client in Morocco, Africa or even worldwide accepts the quotation, the next phase is converting the quote into an official order which is very simple using the same software. At this step, it’s crucial to do a review with the supplier fir the availability of goods to plan for fulfillment based on stock levels and the client’s requirements and reception deadline. 

The system plays a critical role here, ensuring that any modification made in the quotation document such as changes in quantities or delivery deadlines are noted in the order document.

This will include

Stock reserved: Once the order is confirmed, the system should allocate the required stock to the order to prevent selling it in another order.

Stocking Alerts: If stock levels are insufficient, the inventory management system should trigger quotation requests to suppliers or notify the procurement department or team to proceed asap.

Order Tracking: Some systems add the possibility and tools to track the order delivery from confirmation to fulfillment.

Receiving the items

An effective inventory management system will streamline the order reception process by matching the received goods against the purchase order and updating stock levels in real time.

Workflow:

Purchase Order Matching: A responsible from your team should ensure that the products received match the purchase order in terms of quantities and specifications.

Quality Control: Before stocking the item, Inspect goods upon arrival to verify they match the company’s quality standards.

Insert in the Warehouse: Once verified, the goods should be accurately scanned and logged in the system and stored in their specific areas within the warehouse.

Warehouse organization for storage and retrieval

Proper warehouse organization is the backbone of supply chain value and inventory management. As goods come in and go out, maintaining an organized and optimized warehouse is essential for easy and fast picking and checking. Softwares with features like barcode scanning, location mapping, and real-time stock updates can greatly enhance warehouse efficiency.

Best Practices:

  • Storage groups or families: Group products based on families or categories, create custom categories such us fast-moving versus slow-moving items, and storage requirements to speed up retrieval.
  • FIFO (First-In, First-Out): This inventory management method ensures older inventory is sold or used first, reducing the risk of product obsolescence.
  • Inventory audits: Regularly conduct manual and physical counts to verify system data and prevent stock discrepancies.

NB: Companies in Morocco are more likely to work with French versions of softwares so be more careful to do research using the language that is suitable for you, and in many times the best thing to look for will be the term: logiciel de gestion de stock.

Inventory audit and reporting

Usually, it’s important to reconcile inventory levels and generate reports for your management team in order to make decisions. The audit includes validating stock levels after each sale that occured, ensuring that the software for inventory management has been updated, and generating reports to evaluate performance metrics such as stock turnover, demand forecasting, and profitability.

Key insights:

  • Analyze which products are selling fast and which are slow-moving.
  • Track how quickly inventory is being used or sold, helping identify optimizations.
  • Use historical data for future demand and adjust stock levels accordingly.

Are you an entrepreneur in one of these countries? Morocco, Tunisie, Sénégal, Congo, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire ..We recommend you to save this guide for your distribution and supply chain activity.

With the right software and processes in place, distribution companies in Africa can manage their inventory to boost the economy and business landscape, ensure a high value supply chain, and procure the right products availability at any right time, anywhere in the world.

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