en flag +1 214 306 68 37

Inventory Automation 

Use Cases, Steps, Costs, ROI

ScienceSoft applies 12 years of experience in building supply chain management software and 13 years in IoT services to design and develop effective automated inventory solutions.

Automated Inventory System - ScienceSoft
Automated Inventory System - ScienceSoft

Contributors

Alex Ramasheuski

Head of Enterprise Application Development, ScienceSoft

Serge Legchekov

Digital Supply Chain Consultant, ScienceSoft

Inventory Automation: The Essence

Inventory automation facilitates monitoring of inventory levels and location, inventory valuation and audit, inventory ordering and selling. Automated inventory systems rely on IoT and AI technologies to provide end-to-end inventory automation. The solutions support multi-location inventory management, demand-driven inventory planning, and inventory optimization based on advanced analytics, which helps companies avoid stockouts and overstocking.

Inventory automation is especially helpful for large enterprises that need to manage a wide range of inventory items across complex multi-echelon distribution networks.

  • Necessary integrations: ERP, CRM, accounting software, a vendor portal, etc.
  • Implementation time: 8–12+ months.
  • Development costs: $90,000–$400,000, depending on the automation solution's complexity. Use our free calculator to understand the cost for your case.
  • ROI: up to 300%. Calculate ROI for your tailored solution.

Main Use Cases of Inventory Automation

Inventory planning

Achieve up to 30% reduction in an overall inventory amount due to analytics-based inventory planning and multi-echelon inventory optimization.

Inventory replenishment

Get intelligent guidance on when and how much inventory to purchase. Up to 99% of your inventory purchase orders can be managed automatically.

Inventory control

Employ RFID technology and the cutting-edge computer vision techs to drive up to 15x faster inventory counting and get 100% visibility of the real-time inventory levels across your storage locations.

Inventory distribution

With automated and optimized inventory operations, you’ll be able to increase the fill rate and spur the revenue growth. Also, you benefit from enhanced customer satisfaction due to timely order delivery.

Inventory Automation System: Key Features

Based on ScienceSoft’s experience in inventory software projects, we have summarized features that form the core of the automated inventory solution.

Inventory planning

  • Automated calculation of required inventory amounts by period, inventory item, location, etc. based on the analysis of relevant historical data:
    • Inventory demand to support internal processes, e.g., office equipment, raw materials for manufacturing needs.
    • Customer demand (by selling channel, point of sale, during particular seasons, etc.).
  • Automated calculation of expected inventory delivery dates based on the analysis of historical inventory lead time, supplier data, etc.
Read all

Inventory ordering automation

  • Automated creation of purchase orders triggered by reorder points, certain dates, etc.
  • Rule-based supplier assignment for various inventory items.
  • Automated workflows for multi-department purchase order approval.
  • Real-time purchase order status tracking.
  • Alerts to the inventory team on inventory delivery.
  • Automated purchase invoice processing and submission for payment.
Read all

SKU management automation

  • Template-based SKU creation.
  • Rule-based inventory item cataloging.
  • Automated updating of SKU information as new relevant data appear.
  • Rule-based inventory kitting (for retail and wholesale).
Read all

Inventory costing automation

  • Automated inventory valuation based on FIFO, LIFO, weighted average costing, and other inventory costing methods.
  • Calculating inventory carrying costs.
  • Calculating cost of goods sold (COGS).
Read all

Inventory control automation

  • Inventory level monitoring based on barcode (semi-automated) or RFID (fully automated) technology:
    • Across multiple domestic and foreign locations (warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, points of sale, etc.).
    • Across various stages of production (raw materials, in-progress goods, finished goods).
    • Across owned and consignment inventory (for retail, healthcare, and more).
  • Alerts on low-level inventory.
  • Batch control to track expiration dates (e.g., of perishable inventory items) using barcode or RFID technology.
  • Reminders on inventory expiration dates.
  • Inventory audit based on barcode or RFID technology.
Read all

Automated inventory reservation

  • Automated inventory reservation for a customer order.
  • Automated inventory reservation and request for transfer from warehouses to the locations where operations are conducted (e.g., manufacturing facilities or construction sites) triggered by certain dates (e.g., specified in manufacturing or construction schedules).
  • Automated reservation of inventory items required for scheduled medical procedures (for healthcare).
  • Rule-based inventory reservation for guaranteed trade promotion campaigns (for retail).
  • Template-based Bill of Materials (BOM) creation and automated inventory reservation (for discrete manufacturing).
Read all
  • AI-supported calculation of optimal inventory levels and reorder points for each inventory item based on the historical manufacturing and sales data, product promotions, demand seasonality, and other factors.
  • AI-driven recommendations on inventory reallocation between different manufacturing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, points of sale, etc. (for multi-echelon inventory optimization).
Read all

Customer order management

  • Template-based creation of sales orders.
  • Real-time tracking of sales order status.
  • Automated generation and approval of sales invoices and shipping documents.
  • Automated package slips generation.
  • Notifications to the inventory team on the goods dispatch.
Read all

Reverse logistics automation

  • Rule-based inventory return routing to a fitting warehouse.
  • Real-time tracking of return order status.
  • Alerts to the inventory team on the returned inventory delivery.
  • Automated workflows for various inventory processing scenarios upon returned inventory delivery (e.g., inventory routing for quality check or inventory return to the initial supplier).
  • Template-based creation of consignment inventory return orders.
  • Automated reservation of consignment inventory for return to the supplier, invoice and package slips generation.
Read all

Inventory analysis

  • Real-time calculation of essential inventory metrics, such as total inventory levels by location, on-hand/low-stock inventory, inventory turnover, days sales of inventory (DSI), aged inventory, and more.
  • Automated ABC and FSN analysis.
  • Template-based inventory reports.
Read all

Explore Our Inventory Automation System Demo

A sample application for the inventory team shows how robust automation across inventory planning, multi-location inventory control, inventory reporting and other important inventory management processes improves operations efficiency.

Get Effective Inventory Automation

ScienceSoft’s team is ready to plan, build, and support a robust automated inventory system to help companies maintain optimal inventory levels across multiple locations and reduce inventory carrying and processing costs.

Essential Integrations for the Automated Inventory System

ScienceSoft recommends integrating the inventory automation system with relevant corporate solutions to bring end-to-end automation across inventory management processes.

Key Integrations for the Automated Inventory System - ScienceSoft

Inventory automation system + ERP

  • For accurate multi-location inventory planning.
  • To plan optimal time for inventory reallocation from warehouses to the locations where operations are conducted.
  • To leverage inventory data at all levels of operational and strategic planning.

Inventory automation system + CRM

Alternatively to CRM, the solution can be integrated directly with selling channels (e.g., a company’s ecommerce website or a point-of-sale (POS) system).

  • For the automated input of relevant data when creating sales orders and customer invoices.
  • For accurate omnichannel inventory planning to meet customer demand.
  • To keep sales agents up-to-date on available inventory.

Inventory automation system + vendor portal

  • For the automated input of product data when generating POs.
  • For the automated PO submission to suppliers via a vendor portal.
  • For facilitated PO status tracking.
  • For faster processing of supplier invoices uploaded from a vendor portal.

Inventory automation system + accounting software

For automated recording of inventory transactions in the general ledger, accurate inventory value recording and reporting.

Inventory automation system + hardware

(barcode or RFID readers)

For accurate inventory level and location monitoring.

Inventory automation system + BI solution

For the analytics and visualization of multi-location inventory demand analytics, inventory lead time analytics, ABC and FSN analytics, and more.

Success Factors for Inventory Automation

In inventory automation projects, ScienceSoft always seeks to cover the following important factors that may bring the customer additional value across inventory management processes:

The use of barcode and RFID technology

To eliminate error-prone manual inventory counting, enable precise automated tracking of inventory level and location.

AI-powered prescriptive analytics

To provide inventory specialists with intelligent recommendations, for example, on optimal inventory reorder points or inventory reallocation time to support optimal inventory levels across various storage locations and manufacturing facilities.

A mobile app

with barcode scanning and QR code scanning capabilities. To enable employees who deal with physical inventory to track inventory levels and share inventory data with colleagues using their smartphones.

Proper user training

To help employees involved in inventory management quickly learn how to use software and integrated hardware (RFID or barcode scanners) to streamline their daily tasks.

Inventory Automation: Success Stories by ScienceSoft

How to Automate Inventory Workflows

Below, ScienceSoft shares a sample roadmap to inventory automation:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Inventory Automation Techs and Tools ScienceSoft Uses

Inventory Automation Costs and Financial Outcomes

The cost of implementing inventory automation varies greatly depending on:

  • The number and complexity of an automation solution’s functional modules.
  • The amount of automation required for inventory tracking (semi-automation provided by barcode scanners or full automation enabled by RFID technology).
  • The volume and complexity of data to be migrated from spreadsheets and/or existing inventory management software.
  • The number and complexity of integrations (with ERP, CRM, accounting software, a vendor portal, a BI tool, etc.).
Pricing Information

From ScienceSoft's experience, custom inventory automation software of average complexity may cost around $90,000–$250,000.

The cost of a comprehensive automated inventory control system for a large enterprise may reach $400,000+.

Want to know the cost of your inventory solution?

Get a free estimate

Benefits of inventory automation

Inventory automation can bring up to 300% ROI.

  • 100%

    stockout and overstocking costs eliminated

  • 10–30%

    decrease in inventory purchasing, holding and shortage costs

  • 25%+

    reduction in inventory-related labor costs

  • 60%+

    increase in productivity of inventory specialists

When to Opt for a Custom Inventory Automation System

ScienceSoft recommends building a custom automated inventory management system in the following cases:

You need to automate complex or specific inventory-related processes, such as the control of perishable or highly regulated (e.g., medicines, military equipment) inventory items that even customizable software products can’t handle efficiently.

You need a flexible inventory automation solution that is easy to evolve, e.g., with advanced technologies like comprehensive AI-powered inventory analytics or RFID-enabled inventory monitoring.

You are building a blockchain-based SCM system and need to enable facilitated inventory order traceability, inventory shipment tracking and inventory authenticity verification at each level of the supply chain.

You want to avoid costly and complicated integration of inventory management automation software with your legacy corporate systems (ERP, CRM, accounting software, BI software, etc.).

ScienceSoft’s Business Analyst and Digital Supply Chain Consultant

I recommend our clients with non-specific inventory processes and minimal requirements for the solution’s UX and UI consider platform-based development. From my experience, building an inventory automation system based on a low-code platform (e.g., Microsoft Power Apps) can bring up to 74% development cost savings.

Inventory Automation with ScienceSoft

In supply chain management software development since 2012, ScienceSoft helps companies build reliable inventory automation solutions. Our approach to development rests on the closest attention to quality, business value, and compliance with the intended cost and timelines.

Consulting services

  • Analysis of your inventory automation needs.
  • Suggesting optimal inventory automation features (including barcode- or RFID-enabled functionality), solution architecture, and tech stack.
  • Preparing an integration plan with ERP, CRM, accounting software, RFID or barcode scanners, etc.
  • Implementation cost & time estimates, expected ROI calculation.
Go for consulting

Implementation services

  • Inventory automation needs analysis.
  • Automated inventory solution conceptualization.
  • Architecture design.
  • Inventory automation system development.
  • Integrating the solution with the required corporate systems and hardware.
  • Quality assurance.
  • User training.
  • Continuous support and evolution (if required).
Go for implementation

About ScienceSoft

ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Since 2012, we help organizations automate their inventory processes. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, we apply a mature quality management system and guarantee that cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers’ data security. If you are interested in getting a robust inventory automation system, feel free to turn to ScienceSoft’s team.