Ask HN: Inventory management software/apps

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1761358

by rjett • 16 years ago

5 4 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have 3 warehouses in different cities with dozens of items stored in each. We're a very young company and I've convinced the owner that we need to be keeping track of what's coming in and going out of the warehouses with something other than a pen and paper ported to excel spreadsheets. All I need is something simple that allows us to see what's coming in, what's going out, notifies us when inventory of a certain item gets low, and then allows us to write up purchase orders for when something gets low. What on the market performs these functions best and has the best interface?

davidw• 16 years ago

I'm not sure how beautiful the interface is, and it might be overkill if a pencil/paper is not entirely out of the question, but Apache OFBiz has some/most of the functionality you require, I think.

SHOwnsYou• 16 years ago

http://eretail.yobiz.com/ips or it may currently be http://yobiz.com

The owner posts here frequently. I'm sure he will find this and can give you more details than I am able to.

rexreed• 16 years ago

Thanks! Yes - this sounds like exactly the sort of situation that we built Yobiz eRetail IPS to solve. Not only is pencil/paper and excel ineffective if you have multiple warehouses, but imagine if you also have multiple storefronts - trying to keep the sites updated with the correct stock levels is a nightmare.

We're just about to launch our Yobiz app, and we'd love to have you in our trial / alpha. It would be free during the trial period of course, and allow us to learn more about customers like you so we can make sure to have the right features / benefits.

I don't want to be overly self-promoting here, so just check out the site and if it looks like something of value, register and we'll be happy to help!

bjplink• 16 years ago

I worked almost exclusively on internal inventory systems for the first five years after I graduated from college. These systems were custom built for commercial printers who ranged in size from small specialty shops (think promotional items like pens and golf balls) to large factories with 8,000 SKUs and 12 million pieces of printed material stored in a three-floor building with dozens of rooms. So I speak with a least some authority on this matter I guess.

Once you get the bugs worked out of your program (or you integrate an off the shelf product) the nightmare really begins. The big problem with inventory tracking isn't the software or the system but the people who use it. If your people are accustomed to their method of pen and paper to an Excel doc they will resist a new system initially and maybe forever. If there's ever an error, and there will be, they will blame the software and not a co-worker or themselves. The factory with 8,000 active SKUs has had a bug free system for years now and still, even when a mistake can be tracked right down to the individual who made it, they blame their computers. It's just human nature.

And if your software has bugs then you can pretty much kiss the whole thing goodbye right from the start. One of the projects I worked on was plagued by errors that a no-longer-employeed junior programmer couldn't fix. By the time the cavalry was called in to correct things all faith was lost and never really recovered. Unbeknowst to us, the workers in charge of the inventory started running their own parallel system with pen and paper.

Your problem is compounded by needing to track items across multiple locations but saved by the low amount of items. Yobiz looks pretty interesting. I would strongly suggest going in the web/intranet app direction.

I've gone on a bit long but I just wanted to wish you the best of luck.

Ask HN: Inventory management software/apps

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