in·ven·to·ry

/ˈinvənˌtôrē/

noun

1. a complete list of items such as property, goods in stock, or the contents of a building.

synonyms: list, listing, catalog, record, register, checklist, log, archive;

verb

1. make a complete list of

While this is technically the definition of inventory from the dictionary, anyone that has spent any time in the business end of a nursery knows that this description is simplistic at best.

[The Problem]

Nurseries have a dynamic inventory and availability that not only change for the standard business reasons (more were created/purchased or some were sold), but change because they became “ready”, grew too large and became another listed item (Bigger height, etc), were transplanted into a larger pot, got combined with other items to create a completely different product or became too old and just needed to be dumped.

The added complication in a nursery inventory is basically the need for constant human oversight. These events need to be recorded so the sales team will know exactly what they have to work with when they are speaking to your customers. Sounds easy enough, right?

Not so fast.

[The Hole Goes Deeper]

Many nurseries will take a weekly inventory and operate from those numbers for the entire week. That means that the pull crew(s) are deciding by themselves which inventory location they will pull from every day.

The data on where items were pulled from and in what quantity, is lost. This disqualifies them from having their software make decisions for them based on business intelligence. The nursery is caught in an endless cycle that they feel they can never extract themselves from.

[A Perfect Solution]

Having an accurate inventory at all times is easily accomplished, creating a “Super Inventory”. You only need 2 things:

[1] The proper software

[2] A willingness on the part of management to hold their employees responsible for following established procedures

Through the use of our mobile inventory app, any of the “events” that affect your inventory are recorded immediately. New planting? Done. Space and move? Done. Mark as partially ready? Done. Remove and dump? Done.

Virtually any event that needs to be recorded is completed almost as fast as you can write it on a piece of paper. The results? An inventory that you can rely upon and will provide you with additional answers to valuable questions as you move forward, all while giving the office the most accurate picture of what is available for sale at every moment in time.

[The Problem]

Talk to us about how to set up procedures to track all your data properly. Using our system along with our Android based mobile inventory app can transport your nursery to easy street for creating and maintaining a “Super Inventory”.

Read our next blog: The Benefits of Having a “Super Inventory”