In many companies the stock count is a once-a-year job that locks the warehouse for days. Counting with barcodes and handhelds is faster and can be done far more often.
1. Preparation
- Define the scope: The whole warehouse, specific locations or specific product groups?
- Close open movements: Finish pending receipts and shipments before counting.
- Check labels: Replace unreadable or missing barcode labels in advance.
- Assign teams and zones: Make clear which locations each team counts.
2. Counting
- Counters scan the location barcode first, then the item barcodes.
- Quantity is recorded from the number of scans or entered manually.
- Counted locations are marked in the system, so remaining zones are visible live.
3. Variance analysis
Count results are compared with system stock. Running a second count before posting differences is the most reliable way to weed out scanning mistakes. Approved differences are transferred to the ERP as count documents.
Cycle counting instead of annual counts
Once barcode counting is fast, you can move from one annual full count to cycle counting specific locations every week, keeping stock accuracy high without ever closing the warehouse.
Nitrogen PDA lets you run location-based, advanced and cycle count scenarios on handhelds and transfer the results to Mikro ERP.
