Cycle counting

Upgraded cycle inventory capabilities through scheduled counts with Easy WMS

What is cycle counting?

Cycle counting is an inventory technique that involves periodically counting a storage area and/or a group of SKUs, establishing a plan or schedule for counts.

Instead of conducting a massive inventory count that halts warehouse activity for a time, small counts are scheduled and integrated into day-to-day warehouse operations.

Easy WMS’s improved cycle counting capability facilitates the inventory mechanism through count scheduling. A schedule generates successive iterations of counts. During each iteration, the system creates the necessary counting tasks until the planned inventory is complete.

Count scheduling

Count scheduling facilitates cycle counting in the warehouse. It is necessary to define the scope of the counts to be generated and the frequency. For example, a quarterly schedule can be created for high-turnover items and a semiannual schedule for the inventory of a specific aisle.

In a schedule, the following are defined: locations, items, counting method (whether blind or informed), duration (in days) of each iteration, period (in days) between the generation of new iterations, the start date of the next iteration, and the days of the week on which counting tasks should be generated.

Count iteration

A count iteration establishes a period during which Easy WMS will generate a counting order for each scheduled day in the plan. The aim is to create tasks to count all locations and items specified in the schedule during the iteration period.

Once an iteration has finished, the next one will be generated in a cycle that repeats with the frequency defined in the plan.

Iterations will typically be created and completed in an unattended mode, according to the settings established in the plan. However, they can also be created and concluded early upon the request of a person with administrator permissions.

Use cases