Data is king! How many times have you heard “garbage in, garbage out?”

Good inventory management starts with managing the data requirements for a part number.  The importance of this data and how you use it and maintain it is critical to how successful your transactions are in your ERP system and how well you are able to collect this data in reports and other analytics that help you manage your business.

Naming Conventions, Units, and Codes

Data integrity can start with your strategy around naming conventions for the part. Look at a simple example: is it “outflow valve” or “valve, outflow?” What works best if your operation searches by description often? Is it better to search by “outflow valve” or by “valve?”

Second, consider your units of measure, or UOM. How many different ones does the business need? Think about it from the perspective of procuring stock with a purcha se order. What UOM do you use? Is it the same UOM used when you sell the part?

Third, consider your condition codes, such as new, used and overhauled. How many do you need? Should you align with the 8130 requirements? What is your stocking strategy?

Understand, Define and Standardize

Standardizing and defining your data fields is a critical best practice. Next is to build in another best practice focused on controlling the first time setup of a part number by an authorized individual. Doing this will maintain the standardization of the data in the definitions and format the business has selected.

Take the time to understand, define and standardize the data assigned to your part numbers.  Keep in mind that other data collection requirements for export and dangerous goods processing should also be part of these efforts.

These best practices will help you assign the right data to a part master that will allow transactions to work effectively in your ERP system. Your goal is to ensure that the part number in your system has all the correct data needed to issue it to a work order, process it on a sales order and to successfully complete any regulatory paperwork to ship it. 

Your data cleansing workload will be reduced and the loading of your inventory will be successful.

Finally, when the time comes to implement a new system, your data cleansing workload will be reduced and the loading of your inventory will be successful.

And when that happens, congrats! You have avoided “garbage in, garbage out.”