UK manufacturers need to take stock says survey

According to a survey last year of 500 UK companies (mostly from the manufacturing sector) 75% have some kind of software running their stock control system, but more than half still don’t have an automated stock and materials handling system to complement this. The survey, conducted by UK-based storage and retrieval systems specialist Kardex Systems, found that 62% of respondents were still storing items on conventional racking and shelving. And the survey concludes that potential business benefits: improved productivity and efficiency levels; better use of factory floor space; reduced risk of picking errors; and faster retrieval cycle times, are just some of the potential benefits that UK manufacturers may be missing out on. The survey suggests that companies need to integrate inventory transactions with their IT systems so that they can fully track, manage and control activities and costs. And by doing this, the survey claims that firms can eliminate overstocking, reduce the number of stock write-offs through damage from poor handling, and reduce the amount of obsolete stock they are holding. Kardex’s marketing director Nick Tuggey commented. “More than a quarter of UK companies still settle for stock accuracy of less than 90% or retrieval times averaging more than five minutes per item, while the rest of Europe expect nothing less than 99% efficiency throughout the warehouse and much faster picking speeds.”