You know that sinking feeling when you’re staring at a warehouse full of parts that haven’t moved in six months? I’ve walked into that exact scenario more times than I’d like to admit. One mid-sized manufacturer we worked with had over $2 million tied up in slow-moving stock, and their CFO was losing sleep over it. That’s when they called in ERPNext Consulting to clean up the mess.
What Was Really Going On Under the Hood
The company had three different inventory systems that didn’t talk to each other. Purchase orders were based on gut feeling rather than actual demand. The production team would order raw materials just to keep machines running, not because they had orders. It was a classic case of “we’ve always done it this way.”
After a thorough audit with ERPNext Consulting, we found that 40% of their inventory had zero turnover in the last year. That’s cash just sitting on shelves, collecting dust.
The Specific Steps That Turned Things Around
- Set up automated reorder points based on historical consumption and lead time variability – not guesswork
- Implemented cycle counting that flagged discrepancies within 24 hours instead of waiting for annual physical counts
- Created a simple dashboard for the purchasing team showing aged inventory by value and days on hand
- Trained the sales team to input accurate forecast data directly into the system every Monday
What the Numbers Looked Like After Six Months
- Total inventory value dropped by 35% – from $5.8M to $3.7M
- Stockout incidents for critical parts decreased by 60%
- Cash flow improved by over $800,000 in the first quarter alone
One thing I tell every manager: don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with the biggest value items – usually the top 20% of SKUs that represent 80% of the value. That’s where ERPNext Consulting really shines, focusing on what moves the needle first.