Top 3 Ways RFID Can Help Businesses Avoid Stock-Outs
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a sophisticated technology that has been around for several decades but has only gained increasing prominence in recent years due to its ability to simplify inventory management. Today, the use of RFID for inventory tracking has become common and even highly recommended in numerous warehouses and retail stores worldwide. This comes as no surprise since RFID systems usually come with many valuable capabilities and features.
RFID uses radio waves to identify, track, and monitor objects, thereby making it an ideal tool for businesses looking to optimise their operations. Specifically, RFID is quite helpful in preventing stock-outs, as it streamlines various processes like replenishment and order fulfilment with minimal costs and errors.
Read on to learn how RFID can help businesses improve inventory management and avoid running out of stock.
Quick delivery, better tracking, and security
Stock-outs occur when a point of sale or a company has no updated stock. This can lead to two scenarios: the company could stop selling goods that are available in its storage because it is unaware that it has them, or it could sell items (specifically through online platforms) that are unavailable. Now, using RFID for inventory management can prevent this by enabling the company to control all merchandise movements and constantly update the stock.
RFID tags can also facilitate the integration of anti-theft protection systems. For the retail and textile industries in general, RFID can serve as an alarm that is deactivated easily at the checkout and just a couple of seconds before the delivery of the items to the customers. In addition, implementing RFID can significantly reduce errors in the shipment of products to stores. It can speed up the process of delivery acceptance in individual logistics centres.
Controlled resupply
One of the best things about RFID technology is that it can provide businesses with more information regarding procedures and trends. For instance, in the case of the textile industry, companies can monitor consumer trends through RFID. Since it is a technology that enables one to monitor every item from when it leaves the manufacturing site until it is sold in a store, RFID helps to measure the performance of a specific product with customers (i.e., its trends).
Furthermore, by integrating information management systems with advanced RFID tags, companies can automatically request for stock replenishment for a particular destination. If the whole process – from the ordering of the stock to the payment of the customer – is incorporated into a single system, business personnel will no longer need to spend their time tracking down new products or finding out why some items are unavailable.
Improved management of stock and inventory
The term ‘stock management’ covers all those operations that administer a company’s merchandise, such as the entry of the stock in the warehouse, its maintenance and inventory, tracing, and exit of stocks. With RFID, the capture of up-to-date data and the distribution of the most recent information are automated. Especially for businesses struggling to manage their inventory, RFID can help to reduce labour costs, eliminate human error, and track upstream supplies and downstream fulfilment procedures.
Conclusion
Traditionally tracking inventory and stock requires a great amount of time and effort. For this reason, outstanding technologies like RFID have been created so that the replenishment of stock, placing of orders, and fulfilment become much simpler and less prone to high costs and errors. With its ability to enhance inventory management and prevent costly stock-outs, it is no wonder that the use of RFID in retail stores and warehouses has become commonplace nowadays.
