Do you know what's lurking inside your warehouse? Spoilage and damage losses can take a toll on your bottom line, making it difficult to plan for the future. 

Take control of your warehouse operations today and learn how investing in the right technology can help reduce spoilage and damage across your supply chain. 

In this blog post, we'll discuss how to avoid inventory spoilage and damage in your warehouse so that you can map out a plan to improve overall performance with an eye toward efficiency and sustainability. With the right strategies and solutions, you'll be well-positioned to manage stock levels better while still meeting customer demand!

Strategies that could help you avoid inventory spoilage and damage in your warehouse

Invest in a warehouse management system (WMS)

To keep your warehouse operations under control, consider investing in a WMS, a solution that helps you manage your inventory and operations efficiently. You can track your inventory levels, monitor shipments, and receive automated alerts for low stock levels or damaged products with real-time visibility. Investing in a WMS can streamline your warehouse operations, reduce human error and prevent spoilage.

Implement proper storage and handling procedures

Proper storage and handling procedures are crucial to prevent damage and spoilage in your warehouse. This includes establishing the correct storage conditions for different items, adhering to proper stacking and packaging procedures and ensuring your employees are trained to handle products carefully. 

Additionally, it is essential to regularly inspect your inventory and equipment for any signs of wear or damage. By implementing the right storage and handling procedures, you can reduce the risk of damage and spoilage and ensure the longevity of your products.

Keep your warehouse clean and organized

Keeping your warehouse clean and organized is essential for safety and preventing spoilage and damage. Clear walkways and storage areas of debris and use proper cleaning techniques to maintain a sanitary environment. 

Also, properly organizing your products can help reduce the risk of product spoilage, as products with shorter shelf lives can be placed in the front of the storage area to ensure they are used first.

Use data and analytics to optimize your operations

Data and analytics can help you optimize your warehouse operations, reduce spoilage and improve inventory management. By using real-time data from your WMS, you can spot trends in your inventory levels and adjust your purchasing and sales strategies accordingly. 

Additionally, by tracking your spoilage rates, you can identify any areas of improvement in your storage and handling procedures. With data and analytics, you can make informed decisions that will help reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Stop tracking inventory data in spreadsheets

Are you dealing with inventory spoilage and waste challenges? You're not alone. Let's walk through an example and a solution to your problem.

ABC Food Distribution has four warehouses, and they all run different WMSs. Their corporate team did not have a unified system that allowed viewing all of their inventory in one place, and the different systems could not talk to each other without expensive custom modifications.

What was ABC's problem? They could not accurately track their inventory levels, resulting in lost sales and food spoilage. They were wasting time, money and products.

ABC's corporate team was tracking all their inventory in spreadsheets, making it hard for their purchasing group to know each warehouse's inventory and receipts. Collecting this information was an error-prone, manual process. Every morning, each warehouse's operations manager had to physically go into the warehouse, manually query the data from their on-premise system and email a spreadsheet to the purchasing team. Then, the purchasing team had to aggregate the data to attempt to produce forecasts manually and accurately.

This time-consuming, error-prone process could have been more effective and drove inefficiencies. The warehouse managers struggled to get accurate data, as it was a time-consuming process to build each inventory report, and the purchasing team needed accurate data to buy the correct amount of inventory, resulting in food spoilage and waste.

How PorterLogic solves this challenge

Even though ABC's WMSs are all different, PorterLogic can still unify all the systems' data into one place. Two WMS can send data via API, one uses EDI, and the last can send an emailed report of all the current pallets. PorterLogic ingests data from all four WMSs in their formats, aggregating information into a single place. 

The purchasing team now has a set of screens built within PorterLogic where they can see their inventory and receive data. They no longer have to comb through, reformat and transform the raw data in spreadsheets. They now have a single place to see all their data. Moreover, the warehouse managers no longer have to email reports manually, meaning ABC has inventory visibility even when a manager is out sick or on vacation.

With all this data in our system, PorterLogic can run additional calculations to provide richer insights. For example, PorterLogic can determine items with the most significant percentage decrease in inventory per week to extrapolate increased demand and alert the purchasing team. Access to these insights allows ABC to buy products and save the company money more accurately.

Because of PorterLogic, ABC can save time and money while increasing employee satisfaction and productivity and decreasing food spoilage and waste.

Curious to learn more about how PorterLogic can solve your inventory spoilage and waste challenges? Contact our team today.