The importance of stock management can at times be an afterthought, especially when you’re busy and need to get things done. But having a Stock Management Procedure in place will undoubtingly save your business money.
Sam explores how Stock Management can help you save money across different areas of your print business:
Ordering too little ink can cause major issues for your print business. If you were to run out and not be able to say ‘yes’ to that emergency rush job from a customer, you may lose that print job and any future work from that customer.
On the reverse, having too much ink can also cause you problems. If you hold too much stock, you run the risk of your ink reaching its expiry date leaving you with ink you can’t use and potentially effecting your machine warranty etc.
By making sure you have a clear stock management procedure for your staff to follow will definitely help. Finding a balance of having enough spare ink on the shelves but ensuring stock is well rotated is key and will reduce the risk of being caught out with out-of-date inks. It may even save you on extra delivery charges from ordering in an emergency too!
Like ink, it is essential that you have a procedure in place that will help you to monitor rolls of media which have also have expiry dates. You could also order different width sizes of material like PVC banner to avoid as much wastage as possible when printing smaller jobs. Good storage of your media is also important. It can stop any unnecessary damage to your rolls and keep them in the best condition.
This is a little trickier now due to unforeseen external factors such as the Pandemic, the Global Recession and Conflicts etc. However, there were always times where we knew as printers that our business would slow down. For us this was normally August and December. So, during this time we would run our stock down to low levels to help finance the difficult months. Once, demand increased, we would then gradually up the levels of stock to accommodate it.
Look at the amount of delivery charges you pay for at the moment and see if you can reduce the number of orders you place across the month to reduce the overall cost. Can you buy stock monthly, rather than a weekly? Or weekly rather than a few times a week. Having a robust stock management system will help with this.
We would love to hear from you about any tips you may have on saving money or managing your stock. Drop us an email to share your tips and if you have any questions about how we can help your print business in the future give us a call on 01948 662669.