Cycle counting procedures help keep your warehouse operating well, without over-working your crew or making individual days or weeks overly complicated.
What Are Cycle Counting Procedures?
Cycle counting is the process of taking a count of a portion of what you stock in your warehouse. On a given day, you may have many thousands of widgets, and counting all of them would be extremely labor intensive. When you follow cycle counting procedures, you produce an accurate record. By following a cycle, you count a segment of your wares each day instead of trying to count everything at a time.
How These Procedures Benefit Your Warehouse
Cycle counting procedures allow your workers to work at a moderate pace and maintain a high level of accuracy. Instead of rushing through the count to simply get it done, they can focus on an accurate count that also ensures that goods remain in their top condition. In addition to being good for morale, the act of counting in cycles also leads to a more evenly distributed division of labor among your workforce.
Cycle counting procedures also benefit your warehouse because often there are different types of goods that should not be mixed in your list. Since different goods may have different conditions, types, levels of fragility, and even expiration dates that all need to be accounted for, counting them in stages ensures an accurate and complete count. Attempting to count numerous types of goods could easily lead to goods that are improperly counted or grouped together inappropriately.
