Equipment Inventory Management Tips for Growing Businesses
Before a company can add more equipment or update what they have, they need to know what they need. If you’re unsure of your expansion requirements, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time and money on unnecessary things.
Here’s how to do a complete inventory of equipment, and properly assess your situation.
Figure Out What You Have
Before you do anything, figure out what you have. What’s in your inventory. This inventory check should include a complete listing of all of your assets, as well as supporting equipment.
Not only should the inventory checklist be comprehensive, it should be accurate and always kept up-to-date through periodic audits and revisions whenever inventory changes.
Track How You Use What You Have
Once you’ve got all of your equipment and inventory listed, you should take significant efforts to keep track of it. You should know how often it’s used, who uses it, when and where it’s used in your company, and its maintenance schedule.
Inventory trackers are very useful and can be used for various purposes, for example, the police use an evidence tracker to keep track of evidence.
This will help you plan out future purchases or leases.
Use Multi-Channel Distribution Systems
If you have multiple locations, where should your equipment live? How should you allocate it? An equal division of equipment initially sounds logical, but it might not be very efficient. The best allocation strategy is based on usage data at various locations.
In other words, wherever your usage is greatest is where you should keep most of your equipment.
photo/ Public domain pictures via Pixabay
Spend Smarter
You don’t always need to spend more money. In fact, it might make sense to spend less. By prioritizing your spending on equipment, and tracking usage patterns, you can avoid overspending on equipment.
Of course, when you do need it, you should analyze whether it makes sense to use business loans for bad credit or a lease option.
Maintain To Reduce Costs
Regular maintenance is a great way to reduce major repair bills. Spend an hour every week doing basic maintenance on equipment that’s used daily. Spend a day every month repairing equipment that’s broken.
If you take care of small repairs, you might avoid larger repair bills. For example, equipment with multiple wear parts (friction parts) might break down faster or more often when one friction part wears down prematurely and is not replaced, causing other wear parts to “pick up the slack.”
By staying on top of maintenance, you can minimize the risk of a “domino effect” of parts breaking.
Buy The Best You Can Afford
Most businesses think and act like penny-pinching consumers. Bad idea. Always buy the best equipment you can afford. Why? Because high-quality equipment breaks down less and will ultimately do a better job than cheap equipment.
Figure out which brands cause the most issues – avoid them.
Figure out which brands of equipment and supplies your competition uses, and why. Try to stick with top-shelf everything.
Finally, figure out which equipment costs you the most time and money through repairs and ongoing maintenance.
Guest Author :
Nathan Thompson works as a business financing consultant. He loves writing about the business and finance world. You can find his articles on a number of money and business sites.
photo/ Michael Jarmoluk via pixabay
