Challenges involved in Stock Transfers.

Moving inventory between warehouses should not cause major headaches. Dispatching goods to a client from different warehouses also should not be a logistical problem, even when it is a partial order delivery.

Common logistics scenarios in moving inventory:

Business owners today face unprecedented demands; for example the many challenges and costs regarding partial shipments and stock transfers.  What should not be on the list of challenges, are: 

• complex tracking, 
• more documentation,
• increased customer communication,
• mistakes, 
• misplaced orders.

Who it affects

Multi-site distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers who move stock between warehouses or branches and need to know what is in transit at any moment — especially where dispatch and receiving happen at different locations, on different days, and by different people. When transfers are large, frequent, or prone to partial or late arrival: regional distribution networks, a central warehouse feeding satellite branches, or inter-factory material moves.

Partial shipments

Partial shipment happens when the order is split into more than one consignment. The original order is considered partially shipped until the last item on the order arrives, and  each batch is tracked separately. Due to the following factors, partial deliveries become crucial to allow buyers and sellers greater operational flexibility: 

• moving inventory items from one warehouse to another to balance stock,
• out of stock items in e-commerce—having to ship what is currently in stock and backordering the rest to avoid delays,
•  items are produced at different times, 
• some deliveries are more urgent than others,  
• when dispatching from different warehouses becomes necessary,
• In manufacturing: Sending large, bulky machinery on multiple trucks.

Ideal, automated stock transfer conditions for your company:

• Stock should be moved between warehouses with in-transit visibility—no more blind warehouse-to-warehouse moves where stock vanishes from one site and reappears at another with nothing recorded for the time in between.
• Not forcing every move through the instant single-step transfer, which gives no in-transit visibility and no way to handle a delivery that arrives in parts.
• No spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls should be necessary to track what is on a truck between branches. 
• The problem of stock that disappears between sites should be rectified. With an instant move, stock left one warehouse and landed in another with no record of the journey. If it was lost or delayed, nobody knew until a stocktake. 
• In-transit quantity is visible from the moment it is dispatched until it is received.
• Deliveries that arrive in parts. A transfer of 100 units where only 60 turn up used to be all-or-nothing. Now the 60 that arrived can be recorded, destination stock is incremented by exactly that, the other 40 is left open and visible until they show up — or until the transfer is cancelled.
• Over-receiving by mistake. (Receiving more than was sent.) Stock is no longer silently inflated by a mis-keyed quantity.
• Cancelling cleanly without double-counting. Cancelling in-transit transfers is possible:  the un-received remainder is returned to source; anything already received at the destination stays there. No manual adjustments, no stock counted in two places.
• Confusing a quick shuffle with a real transfer: Same-site relocations and genuine inter-warehouse moves are recorded as distinct actions.

Summary:

In short: moving stock between source and destination warehouses with in-transit visibility is a game changer for overburdened business owners. As far as stock transfers, stock relocation, partial shipping, partial order delivery, and dispatching from different warehouses are concerned, —Flōware is able to help to make the logistics easy.