Concept and reason for stockless delivery function in Tuhund

At the onset let me clarify that there can be no stockless delivery of goods. If you are creating a commercial invoice or a delivery note for goods, then the goods have to pass through your inventory. Sometimes they do not physically pass through your stores, but in records they do. In the case of indent sales, you do not create an invoice for the sale amount, but only for your commission amount. There is also no possibility of negative stock physically. Negative stock, in practice, means that you are selling a product before purchasing it. At the very least it implies that, on papers, you are showing goods going out of your inventory before they have come in. In certain cases, it is permitted as an operational compulsion. Therefore, stockless delivery in Tuhund is not a permanent feature but a temporary arrangement helpful in stock entry and consolidation at the time of implementation. It keeps turning off automatically one by one for each product when the stock of that product is entered into the system. For a smaller organization, where inventory is not huge, and for organizations that can provide data of stock in one go, this feature is never turned on.

How does stockless delivery work :

As usual, let us explain this with an actual case as an example. One of our customers is a mid-sized trading and distribution company dealing with automobile spare parts and accessories. They have three companies (legal entities) and a total of nineteen branches across India. Each branch maintains its own inventory and keeps a moderate level of stock. However, the head office, at Bangalore has a huge warehouse with seven floors and a total floor area of 63,000 square feet. Their inventory comprises over three hundred thousand products. Some products, like nuts and bolts, were so huge in number that they could not even be counted. At the time of migration from their old system to Tuhund, there was such a big mismatch between stock on records and physical stock that there was no point entering their data, which was grossly wrong. Had the stock been limited, logic would say to stop work for a day, recount all the stock, enter correct stock in the says and start the operation again. In their case, it would have taken months to do this exercise. Data had to be entered in real-time, which was again a problem. Besides entry, they also needed checks and approval to ensure the precision of data. This was practically not possible. The solution was simple. It was a combination of process change and technology. We started the process by masking the inventory, what we call stockless delivery. In accounting and sales, everything works as usual, but the system does not prevent users from selling items that are not in stock. After accounting an invoice (or even before that if enabled from settings) a delivery note is created. This kind of delivery note takes only the products for which stock is added and verified from the actual inventory. For the rest, it allows processing without stock. 

How does stockless delivery fix the stock mismatch problem?

Suppose at a particular time we add the data for a product A. Till this data was not added, the system allows you and processes all invoices without stock. From this time onwards system removes stock for any sales from the inventory. In a similar way, the system handles your purchases or any other form of stock in as well. Consequently, you get the correct data for each and every item one by one. Once all the data is added, it is simple for the system to reverse compute and add the data that would have been there before stockless delivery. This data is entered in one go by the implementation team and the feature is turned off for good. 

What support does Tuhund provide to make this process fast and simple:

Tuhund provides you the process as well as the tools. Finally, we help you to close the process. For each location, that is each bin, in each shelf, in each rack, in each row, in each floor we let you generate and print QR code. Of course, you can do this in bulk. QR code contains details of the location as well as details of the product if this location has been reserved for a product, which is usually the case. You can scan this code with the Tuhund mobile app (Android or IOS). The app shows you details of the location, what is expected in the bin and what is there in the bin. Initially, there will be no record of what is there in the bin. You can just pick up a piece from the bin, scan the barcode on the same screen, and just enter the quantity in the quantity box. Your job or entry is done. To make sure, everything is correct, the app also shows you pictures of the part. 

In our experience of Eleven years, we have found that there is no bigger pain point than maintaining correct inventory for any organization with medium to large inventory. This is a tried and tested approach that some customers were enthusiastic about and some accepted very reluctantly but in the end, it has always worked. 

I have seen the screen in app where you can see detailed of the location including booking and current stock but there is no button for editing or adding. 

There are other ways for stock correction in the system. They have approval rules and generate legal tenders. The function and method of stock correction mentioned in this post are applicable only during the implementation phase. You have been using the system for several years. You cannot just change the stock without a valid legal tender and after following the due process. That is the reason these buttons are not available to you.