Our latest research has shown that 60% of businesses have been negatively affected by the pandemic.

While this is unsurprising, it does highlight something critical for firms:

They need more agile solutions to better help them prepare for future crises.

COVID significantly impacted efficiency

The study – focused on remote working, the increased need for collaboration, and the impact of supply chain disruptions – examined how COVID affected manufacturers and distributors.

When looking specifically at distribution, 45% of respondents agreed that they were unable to operate at the same levels of efficiency they enjoyed before the pandemic hit.

As the coronavirus continued to reshape the world in 2020, many firms looked ahead to the future and attempted to predict what they might need in 2021.

Early evidence suggested that some businesses were stockpiling items towards at the end of last year – although, this could have been just as easily related to the Brexit deadline of December 31.

UK goods imported from the EU have historically peaked in the weeks leading up to the previous deadlines in March and October 2019. This was largely driven by imports of machinery and transport equipment.

However, COVID itself bore numerous consequences on businesses’ stocks throughout last year.

The second and third waves flooded the UK in November and December 2020. This, twinned with the discovery of a new variant, served as a precursor to multiple lockdowns across the country. Ports in the English channel were also temporarily closed.

All this ultimately led to companies stockpiling items in a bid to prepare for 2021.

In fact, 6.4% of businesses reported stockpiling across all industries. Those operating in the manufacturing sector were the most likely to stockpile (18.6%), followed by the accommodation and food service activities industries (16%).

The issue with this forward planning is that without the correct solution, any number of issues could arise ranging from inventory costs through to a lack of visibility over where stocks sits.

All this compounds into a serious question – are businesses losing too much money from inefficient stock planning?

Traditional stock take methods are inefficient

Indeed, traditional stock taking methods are inefficient and leave much room for inaccuracies, which can subsequently result in decreased margins.

Luckily, we have just the solution in place to help businesses tackle this issue.

TransLution provides real-time visibility of stock and where it sits to capture live transactions on the warehouse floor and improve inventory counting accuracy by facilitating Cycle Counts.

Cycle Count transforms your stock management by increasing the accuracy of the physical stock vs. book stock records. It even performs this procedure often enough to satisfy control and audit requirements.

This means you could remove the need for an annual stock count completely.

Further, live transactions can be digitalised to help businesses transition away from archaic paper-based payments whilst also tracking stock as it moves through the warehouse.

TransLution can help you:

• Minimise disruptions, helping streamline your stock management process and ensure less “shut down” time.
• Reduce over or under stocking and increase stock turnaround, thereby improving your stocking and production decisions using data collected from regular Cycle Counts.
• Create real-time awareness of stock problems and enables you to correct them faster. Immediately identify your inventory variances and the causes of these issues.
• Improve customer service – accurate product stock means improved production alongside faster delivery and service speeds and thus, happier customers.

Interested? Contact your account manager to learn more about how TransLution can be used with SYSPRO today!