Creative ways to make inventory discrepancies visible

Kinetic ERP
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Has anyone developed any creative ways to help detect inventory discrepancies sooner? Today we run into the issue of our system balance saying one thing while the physical balance is entirely different. If the system balance is overstated, we run out of parts. If its understated, we risk over producing or over purchasing.

I know this is an age old question. Just wanted to hear what other companies are doing to close the feedback loop and make discrepancies between physical and the system more visible and caught before there is a major problem.

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Like cycle counting?

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There are actually TWO methods. One is Cycle Counting, the other is Transaction Discipline… which involves finding out WHY physical and system don’t match, and ensuring that your system processes are trained well and followed through. Using both of those is really the only sure way to minimize the problem.

On the bright side, it will never be perfect. But it WILL get a lot better.

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Well if we’re being creative… What if we put scales in all of our bins. Periodically pass the scale weights to Kinetic and store them in UD Tables linked to the bins. Then pass in PartBin.OnHandQty * Part.NetWeight and compare to the weight. If the discrepancy hits a threshold, start firing off emails every 10 minutes until someone figures out what’s going on.

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Or cameras?

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AI SOLUTIONS???

Do you want a Skynet? Because that’s how you get a Skynet.

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I wish I knew.

Bins/shelves/locations/places that always have the same part rather than people allowed to put anything there - that would help a lot. I think that’s what the scale/camera ideas presume.

We fail at that because, well, I could be cynical, but the kind version is that as an ETO company, what we need at station 350 (or whatever) changes constantly, so the shelves kind of need to be dynamic.

Personally I feel like the library licked this problem 150 years ago with the Dewey Decimal system. A 873 book is out of place in the 570’s section. Maybe I am naive, but I feel like our inventory could be broken into a smart part number system that would do the same - basically force the warehouse to organize itself.

Too late.

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to be fair GIF

These solutions have been around before generative AI.

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The scale solution should still work!

PartBin:

Part PartBin.QOH Part.NetWt Calc_TotalWt
Part0001 50 3 LB 150 LB
Part0002 32 5 LB 160 LB
Part0003 4000 .02 LB 80 LB

Leaves you with 390 LB, if the scale says 450 LB, you’ve got an issue.

@Mark_Wonsil’s terminator AI would probably have trouble with it though.

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Until Indiana Jones replaces the idol head with a bag of sand.

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Or use an iPhone

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I’m not too afraid of AI. Without it I’d just be Mrk Wonsl. :person_shrugging:

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Or use KANBAN with QR code, place KANBAN card at minimum level, when reached - camera scans QR and order is placed with some kind of automation. Tho using PAD UI elements in KINETIC is a nightmare. Don’t know about BPM, some say it could crash all system if not used properly.

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And an evergreen point notably highlighted by Weird Al in 1989. (also the Indiana Jones reference but I am exercising restraint…)

conan the librarian dewey decimal system GIF

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I’m not sure why but sometimes it feels like cycle counting actually makes the inventory worse…am I the only one?

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I see you also work with idiots.

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Counting is hard. This we know.
Calculating Figure It Out GIF

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sigh Well, yes.

What could go wrong?

  • Counting (but usually OK ish)
  • Negative numbers confuse people endlessly (even highly paid managers)
  • This part is a set; 1 EA in the computer looks like 2 physically
  • Non-nettable bins are evil
  • Part is in 4 physical locations; you counted it in 3 because that’s all the computer told you to do
  • Two electronic warehouses for the same physical building
  • Timing
    • PO not received yet
    • Not factoring in WIP properly (parts not issued/backflushed yet were physically consumed)
  • This is red-tagged - is it in DMR? No, like really in DMR?
  • We converted this axle to another part number and didn’t change the data plate, so we counted it as the old number again
  • This is a left-hand widget; we counted all of them as right-hand widgets
  • Everything looks the same!
  • You wanted me to actually take the parts out of the opened box to count them?!
  • But that shelf is so high off the ground! And this box is dusty.

Man, I could go on.

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This can be a real issue lol.

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Black metal, bent, with holes in it, maybe welds. That’s half our warehouse.

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