Small business warehouses are able to track products quite easily since there are only a few SKUs to manage. Manual management of records becomes difficult when you start getting thousands of different products or SKUs. Especially when you’re keeping track of sales orders and purchase orders to determine profitability. Before getting into SKU Management, firstly it’s important to understand what an SKU is.
What is an SKU?
Stock Keeping Unit is an alphanumeric unique identification code utilize to identify a product or service to track its movement. The code itself helps to categorize items by features that differentiate them from similar products. SKUs are created primarily for inventory management but also help to prevent theft and help employees.
What is SKU management?
SKU management is a division of inventory management that helps to identify, track, and categorize saleable items using a unique alphanumeric code. It helps businesses keep their warehouse organized, as all information regarding a particular product can be pulled up quickly such as how many units are in stock.
Best practices for SKU Management
Create Important SKUs
In order to help identify, and include product properties such as color, size, and type to keep it straightforward. So that warehouse employees and retailer workers are all able to understand the series of numbers and letters. Also, be mindful of confusing letters or numbers, an O and a 0 are often confusing so it’ll be best to stay away.
Group SKUs for Warehouse Management
Depending on your business, you can group all your summer swim shorts together or you could group all your size mediums together to help the picking process for warehouse employees. The business process that works for your company, barcoding speeds up the warehouse picking process and eliminates human errors.
Simplify and Remove Unpopular SKUs
While the expansion of product line support businesses to grow their businesses, holding on to items that don’t sell can cut into your profit margins in the long run. Dead stock is inventory that has been sitting in your warehouse for some time and isn’t selling due to low demand. ERP Software that tracks SKUs can produce historical data so you can see sales by product and determine which SKUs to get rid of.
How an ERP Software, MetaWMS can help with SKU Management
As a wholesale distributor, MetaWMS can streamline your processes and can connect your inventory, accounting processes, and warehouse operations together. By having one system interconnecting to all departments, you are able to see real-time inventory levels and data. Managing SKUs isn’t just about choosing the correct letters and numbers to assign a product. It’s about streamlining the flow of your warehouse.
For more information and a tailored demonstration contact us today at MetaOption.