Using Inventory Software for Manufacturing

Streamline your production and track raw materials, supplies, components, and finished products using inventory management software for manufacturing.

Written by Caesar Vindor

Last Updated February 2024

Properly tracking what goes into manufacturing your products ensures accurate costing and optimal pricing for those finished products. With the right system you can maintain availability, minimize waste, and reduce losses. And the best way to accurately track your product manufacturing is with a web based Manufacturing Inventory Management Software like Skyware Inventory.

In this guide we'll use the desktop version of the application to walk you through some examples. You can perform the same functions through mobile or tablet interfaces as well.

How to setup inventory software for manufacturing?

The first step to using Skyware Inventory is to create a free account. During the account creation process you can customize your account to fit your process.

The following are some recommendations for setting up a manufacturing account in Skyware Inventory. These can be done through the setup wizard during account creation, or after the fact by visiting My Account -> Account Configuration:

• Activate most features - particularly Categories, Locations, Cost Tracking, and Price Tracking.
• Create categories for your raw materials, supplies AND finished products.
• Create locations for places like your storage room, shop floor, or shipping room.
• Set your Cost Method to LIFO, FIFO or AVE depending on the standard practice in your industry.

How to manage manufacturing inventory?

The easiest way to manage manufacturing inventory is with a transaction based system that allows you to add, subtract, or move production materials around using a series of simple transactions, all kept in a time ordered ledger of inventory activities.

With Skyware Inventory you will rely on our convenient transaction types that include Receipts, Tickets, Transfers and Adjustments.

• Receipts are for raw materials, supplies and components you purchase or otherwise bring into your shop.
• Tickets are for finished products you sell or otherwise move out of your shop.
• Adjustments are for Work In Progress (WIP) that consumes raw materials, supplies, and components to create your finished products.
• Transfers are for moving things between locations such as from storage rooms to shop floors to shipping & staging areas.

How to start tracking production materials?

The first step is to enter the ITEMS module and press the New Item Button:

Enter information about each raw material, component or supply

On the Item Entry Screen you will see all the fields you activated during your account setup. The image below is a simple example of the information one might track.

And if you wish to further customize your items use the gear icon to open our Item Designer tool and add or remove tracking fields.

Add Images or Documents

Once you have saved the production component as a new item, you can add Images and Documents. You can add multiple images and documents to easily review different views of a component, its data sheets, schematics, warranties or manuals.

How to bulk import production materials?

Skyware Inventory features a powerful spreadsheet import and export wizard that enables users to do the following:

• Bulk import raw materials, supplies, and components into inventory,
• Bulk update existing production items in your inventory,
• Update the current balances of production items in your inventory across all locations, and
• Export all your current production items and balances by location.

How to routinely stock production materials into inventory?

To stock or restock materials into your inventory you'll use a Receipt. Visit the TRANSACTIONS module and select New Receipt.

Fill out the top of the Receipt with relevant information such as vendor, comment, date and reference. From there you'll move-on to adding line items to the middle portion of the form where you'll include important information such as the item, location, quantity, and cost. Lastly, if there are any documents associated with the transaction you can add them at the bottom. Here's an example:

And if you wish to further customize the form use the gear icon to open our form designer tool and add or remove tracking fields.

How to track work in progress (WIP) using adjustments?

When you're ready to pull production materials from your inventory to manufacture a product you'll use a Adjustment. Visit the TRANSACTIONS module and select New Adjustment.

Fill out the top of the Adjustment with relevant information such as the some comments, a date and any reference. From there you'll move-on to adding line items to the middle portion of the form where you'll include important information such as the raw materials picked from your inventory, the location pulled from, plus quantity and cost. Continue the process for additional materials and components that go with this manufacturing run.

Lastly, once the manufacturing run is complete - add the finished product(s) to the bottom of the Adjustment as an addition. Notice the Adjustment keeps track of all the material costs that went into the run - so it's easy to set the material cost of the new product to be the same. Here's an example:

How to use re-order alerts for production materials?

First, be sure you activated Reorder Alerts under My Account -> Account Configuration, and also remember to set thresholds for each item that you want to trigger the alerts. Once setup, a Dashboard widget becomes available that will display items that have dropped below their reorder threshold. Here's an example:

Use this widget to quickly reorder those items. It will automatically generate Receipts at a future delivery date you can specify. You can even setup the widget to email you alerts as well.

How to use tickets for shipping and sales?

When you're ready to move finished product out of your inventory you'll use a Ticket. Visit the TRANSACTIONS module and select New Ticket.

Fill out the top of the Ticket with relevant information such as the customer, some comments, a date and any reference. From there you'll move-on to adding line items to the middle portion of the form where you'll include important information such as the finished product picked from your inventory, the location it's pulled from, plus its quantity and sale price. Lastly, if there are any documents associated with the Ticket you can add them at the bottom. Here's an example:

About the Author

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Caesar Vindor Caesar is a Freelance Writer with over 20 years of experience helping businesses grow through Website Design, Blogging and Seach Engine Optimization (SEO). When he's not writing he can be found exploring the stomping grounds of his forebears in Ganajuato, Mexico or Pune, India. You can find him on Medium @caesarvindor and on LinkedIn.

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