Top 10 Business Benefits of Automated Reordering in 2024

34% of procurement leaders viewed managing supply chain disruptions as their biggest challenge in 2022, only second to “lack of needed skills and capabilities (Figure 1).” And with supply chain crisis still present, businesses should find ways to mitigate its challenges. Automation can help them in their effort. For example, they can automate:

• Procurement
• Back-office tasks
• Warehouse processes

To maintain control over their supply chain. In this article, we are discussing how automated reordering, a use case of automated inventory management systems, can help businesses maintain the inflow of intermediary goods to ensure a consistent manufacturing cycle.

What is automated reordering?

Automated reordering is using

• An end-to-end inventory management system
• Or automation tools, such as RPA, AI, or orchestration tools, such as WLA and job scheduling

to monitor each item’s reorder point on the ERP solutions, and automatically place reorders for out of stock products.

What are the benefits of automated reordering?

1. Save tons of time

Automated reordering frees your procurement team from having to manually submit purchase order requests for replenishment when stock levels fall.

Especially during peak seasons where inventory levels all low, and reorders should be placed quickly, inventory automation can free your teams from the manual work on the spreadsheet.

2. Manage inventories intelligently, dynamically and flexibly

Automated reordering is a use case of automated inventory management. So by automating the inventory management process, you’re getting real time data. The data can then be used by RPA bots to place a reorder when stock levels fall below the reorder point.

For instance, Singuli’s inventory management solution (Figure 2) enables advanced analytics of inventory from multiple sales channels. The ML algorithms leverage historical lead times to determine replenishment forecasts.

3. Lower inventory costs

Retailers can use inventory management software to accurately calculate the reorder points. By taking into account seasonality, forecasted demand, and other relevant factors, companies can order an accurate amount of reorder quantity. This reduces stock overloads and doesn’t freeze up the capital.

Inventory shrinkage is also decreased. In the US alone, food waste in the retail and consumer levels is between 30-40%. Data-driven reordering prevents over-ordering and spoilage in warehouses.

4. Automate purchase orders

A use case of reordering automation is automating the purchase orders. To reduce supply chain disruptions, RPA bots can automatically fill out the purchase orders without human intervention. The benefit is reduced supplier lead times: the sooner a purchase order is submitted, approved, and sent to a vendor, the faster they will ship it out.

5. Set order calendars

Procurement teams can use job schedulers to create and send automated purchase requests on specific days of each month without any error. This ensures that the business always has sufficient amount of necessary materials for business continuity. For instance, if historical demand data for a company is highly seasonal, order calendars can be set days before D-Day. This will ensure sufficient stock levels.

6. Set inventory alerts and notifications

RPA-IoT integration means smart sensors on the shelves can keep track of how much inventory is on hand. Then they can notify the warehouse managers of the diminishing inventory when an item is taken off the shelf.

7. Stop miscalculating stock-levels

Through smart inventory management and automated reorders, companies will optimize their inventory levels. Smart IoT sensors and integrated systems will provide accurate reports of the stock levels for multiple items in real-time.

8. Monitor vendor SLA terms

Having an automated inventory management system results in digitized record keeping. The procurement team can monitor the supply lead time in terms of:

• Order placement
• Shipping schedule
• Order receival

This data can then be compared against the SLA terms on the vendor contract. And if there are variations, an automated email can be sent to the vendor to submit the complaint and demand an explanation. The benefit is that retailers will have control over their vendor relations and inventory management process.

9. Lower inventory costs

Companies can use inventory management software to accurately calculate the reorder points. By taking into account seasonality, forecasted demand, and other relevant factors, companies can order only as much as they need and not freeze up their capital on stock overloads.

10. Ensure scalability

Especially for businesses with disparate warehouses, it’s important to ensure on-time deliveries to all of them. By implementing an automated reordering system, companies can gain visibility into

• Stock supplies
• Sales
• Replenishment processes
• Vendor relations
• Future orders

and other inventory data across all their locations.

For more on process automation

To explore process automation in more details, read:

• Payment Automation: How It Works & Its 6 Benefits
• Guide to Business Process Automation: Types, Use Cases & Best Practices
• AI Resume Screening: 10 Ways It Helps Hirings Managers

And if you’re ready to invest in a business process automation solution, we have a data-driven list of BPA vendors.

We will help you through your selection process:

Find the Right Vendors

External Links

• 1. “Singuli Analytics” Gartner. September 17, 2023.