【Cloud Goods Sharing】 Serialised Inventory Tracking: How to Improve Operational Efficiency and Accuracy

How to Enhance Operational Efficiency and Accuracy

In today's complex and ever-changing business environment, organisations are faced with increasing supply chain management challenges. Serialised Inventory Tracking (SIT) is becoming a key tool for improving operational efficiency and accuracy, whether it's responding to stringent regulatory requirements or meeting high customer expectations for product quality and transparency.

Serialised Inventory Tracking is a method of tracking the entire lifecycle of each product or component by assigning it a unique identifier (usually a barcode or serial number). These identifiers not only record a product's manufacturer, production date and warehouse location, but also track where the product was sold and warranty information. With serialised tracking, companies can accurately monitor their products at every step of the process, from production to distribution.

Benefits of Serialised Tracking

Serialised tracking offers a number of significant benefits to businesses, particularly in high-value products and regulated industries such as medical devices and aerospace. Here are nine key benefits of serialised traceability:

1. Ensure Regulatory Compliance

Serialised traceability helps companies demonstrate regulatory compliance by detailing product movement, inspection and certification information. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all drugs and medical devices must be traceable back to the source of production to ensure safety and quality.

2. Fraud Prevention

Serialised tracking effectively prevents counterfeit products from entering the market by assigning a unique identifier to each product. Consumers can scan the serial number to verify the authenticity of the product, thereby protecting brand reputation and corporate revenue.

3. Improved Quality Control

Serialised tracking enables companies to monitor every step of a product's journey through the supply chain. Once quality problems are detected, companies can quickly trace the source of the problem by analysing the serial number and take targeted measures.

4. Enhanced traceability

Serialised traceability creates a complete production history for each product, enabling companies to quickly identify and resolve quality issues. For example, if a batch of pharmaceuticals is found to have a quality problem, companies can trace the serial number back to the specific production batch and take precise recall measures.

5. Accurate Inventory Monitoring

Serialised tracking provides businesses with deeper inventory visibility than traditional inventory systems. Businesses not only know inventory quantities, but also the specific configuration, warranty status and service history of each product.

6. Streamline the returns process

Serialised tracking ensures the right products are returned during the returns process, preventing fraud and streamlining reverse logistics. By scanning serial numbers, companies can quickly confirm that a product is eligible for return and automatically update inventory.

7. Verify Product Ownership

Serial numbers are digital identifiers of products. By scanning serial numbers, companies can verify product ownership, confirm warranty status, and provide a basis for insurance claims.

8. Accurate Product Recalls

Serialised tracking enables companies to avoid mass recalls and take action only on faulty products. This not only saves time and resources, but also better protects consumer rights.

9. Simplified Warranty Management

Serialised tracking makes it easy for companies to manage warranty services by linking a product's production date to its warranty terms. Consumers do not need to save receipts or manually register products; all information is already linked to the serial number.

Inventory Management with Oracle NetSuite

Enabling Serialised Tracking

The potential benefits of serialised tracking are many, but to fully realise them, organisations need a robust system: one that combines powerful data management, real-time tracking capabilities, seamless integration with existing systems, user-friendly interfaces, and powerful reporting and analytics. NetSuite Inventory Management brings these capabilities together in a unified platform NetSuite Inventory Management brings these capabilities together in a unified platform that provides real-time views of multiple inventory locations and distribution channels-including warehouses, retail shops, flash shops, drop shippers, and third-party logistics providers-as well as the entire product lifecycle from supplier to end customer. This helps support what more buyers want today: a seamless, buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere experience.

NetSuite Inventory Management automatically assigns serial numbers to track individual products. It also integrates tools to improve replenishment efficiency, cycle counting, traceability, and item visibility. For example, when a customer wants an item that is out of stock, the NetSuite system can avoid lost sales by allowing salespeople to transfer, hold, or ship materials directly to the customer.NetSuite solutions also provide the flexibility to enable organisations to meet the business needs of internal systems, from e-commerce to distribution to customer service.

Serialised inventory tracking allows organisations to track and manage individual inventory items. This approach provides increased visibility, control, and accountability throughout the supply chain for today's competitive marketplace. Serialised Inventory Tracking helps to ensure compliance and increase customer satisfaction despite the initial challenges of implementation. In the age of digital transformation, serialised inventory tracking is the cornerstone of modern supply chain management.