How to Overcome the Challenges of Outsourcing Stock

If you're not currently outsourcing your stock, you may want to consider it.

Outsourcing provides countless benefits for manufacturers, enabling them to focus on higher-level competencies such as production, quality control and product design. 

Leveraging partners for inventory distribution and storage can makes manufacturing more cost effective, reducing the need for large warehouses with fixed utilities and maintenance requirements. They no longer need to manage, hire and train staff in-house to handle logistics.

It makes operations more flexible and scalable too. Manufacturers are no longer limited by storage capacity, enabling them to take advantage of seasonal fluctuations and spikes in product demand without needing to pay for more space. Third-party logistics providers (3PL) also offer advanced technologies for analytics and inventory tracking, helping to reduce the risk of errors and improving stock visibility. 

3PL providers have established expertise in optimising and handling supply chains, making delivery faster and more efficient. 

By outsourcing stock, manufacturers can also direct resources towards the two big business P's: product development and production processes.

Innovating here is crucial for enhancing demand, ensuring future competitiveness, increasing revenue and optimising operations.

With all these sizeable benefits, there's one big question: why aren't all manufacturers outsourcing stock management? 

The challenges of outsourcing stock

Outsourcing stock comes with substantial challenges for manufacturers, challenges which are all rooted in a loss of control. 

Outsourcing can result in inconsistencies or delays, as manufacturers no longer have direct oversight on stock handling. 

These partners now have access to sensitive data and a level of operational control that is risky if not managed properly.

There can be communication issues, like delays in sharing critical information that disrupts production schedules and leads to stock shortages/ overages.

Some partners also don't meet the manufacturers standards of quality and reliability, impacting their supply chain and customer satisfaction. 

Addressing these challenges is all about verification and trust, laying out stringent standards, expectations and processes ahead of time, maintaining consistent communication and creating comprehensive plans in case things do go wrong.

But the existence of these issues can present too much of a risk to some manufacturers, who need to ensure consistent, reliable production and delivery as part of their core business model. 

Which is why leaders in inventory management solutions like RGIS are creating new technologies to prevent these issues from arising.

RGIS: outsourced stock checks

RGIS is a global leader in inventory management solutions, providing outsourced stocktaking services which save clients time and money. 

The company has operated in the rail sector for over 65 years, expanding over time to serve a growing base of industrial and manufacturing clients.

This development is thanks to its innovative RGIS Vision technology.

RGIS Vision is an advanced industrial solution that goes beyond barcode scanning to speed up stocktaking and inventory checks.

It eliminates paperwork and manual data entry, scanning product codes, barcodes and part numbers. 

This boosts the operational efficiency of RGIS’s auditors during industrial inventories.

An RGIS team equipped with this hardware can deliver quicker and more accurate results than an in-house stock take, offering companies significant productivity and financial savings.

 “RGIS Vision enables all manufacturing and industrial facilities to realise the benefits of outsourcing their inventory checks – even those who don’t have a barcode system in their warehouses" says Kiran Soni, Managing Director, UK and Ireland of RGIS.

“Some businesses still don’t understand the high internal expenditure required for an in-house stock take. And others don’t think they can outsource unless they already have a barcode system in place. RGIS Vision fully addresses these issues, making outsourcing viable for many more companies.”

RGIS Vision uses innovative camera handset technology to capture part numbers, QR codes and product codes as well as barcodes.

It can even read smudged, faded or blurred part numbers.

The cloud-based system creates a data file that can be imported into any system or spreadsheet, significantly reducing the need to manually correct item-line variances on an inventory tracker and saving the hours needed for manual data entry.

By enhancing visibility through technology, manufacturers can unlock the benefits of outsourcing stock management and mitigate its potential risks. 

“RGIS Vision can speed up stock-taking for any business that holds an inventory of items, such as parts and components,” says Soni.

“Ultimately, it enables manufacturing and distribution companies to make better-informed decisions about outsourcing their inventory checks. It builds the business case for employing outside experts rather than relying on their own employees and time-consuming manual processes.”

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