As your business grows, you might consider migrating your inventory management to a new system.
Having the right warehouse management system for your business is vital, and it provides visibility into your inventory, whether in a warehouse or manufacturing facility.
There are a few things to consider to make migrating your inventory management more straightforward and effective.
1. Anticipate Changes the New Inventory Management System Will Make
Before even looking at the technology side of your new ERP/WMS system, you need to anticipate what changes could occur as you migrate to the new system.
Chances are your new warehouse management system will come with exciting features, but these could also affect your existing processes.
By understanding the new system’s changes, you can start thinking about updating your standard operating procedures and training your staff as they transition from your current system to your new one.
2. Engage Your IT Department Early
Your IT department’s involvement will be crucial for the technology side of the new system.
Consider a mapping exercise when importing data from your old system into your new system, as some data may need to be adjusted.
Getting your IT department involved early on minimizes the chance of errors and data loss.
3. Consider an Operational Pause While Migrating Your Inventory Management to a New ERP/WMS
No one likes the idea of stopping operations, but taking a break while you migrate to the new system will pay off in the end.
If you can figure out a way to bring your operations to a close, it will give you and your team time to transition properly to your new system.
Consider planning your operational pause around a quarter-end or year-end or if you have seasonality in your business, then plan the migration outside peak times.
4. Get Department Heads Involved
Migrating your inventory management to a new ERP/WMS is a big job, and you need to get your department heads on board.
By involving them in the process, they can offer support, guidance, and training to the rest of your team.
As they become involved in the process, it can help them understand what they need to do to bring operations to a close in the old system so they are ready to migrate to the new system. They can also establish the steps and action items for the transition to happen smoothly.
It is important that you set up planning meetings to review the progress of those action items as you approach the migration date.
5. Do a Physical Inventory Count
As you are already taking an operational pause, now is the perfect time to assess the quality of your data in your legacy system.
For an effective and straightforward migration, you want clean data. If you have inaccurate data or problems, then now is the best time to bring in a third party to do a physical count.
You will already have the cost of an operational shutdown, so using this time to bring in somebody to get good, clean, accurate data makes sense.
This allows you to load the new data into your new system, ready for operations to start again.
Let Monarch Make the Transition Easier
At Monarch, we aim to help make the lives of our customers easier by streamlining their systems and processes.
We take a personalized approach to your business and help you get the best out of your systems.
If you are planning an inventory management migration and want a physical stock count, then contact us to help make the transition.
