The reasons for these errors are many and varied. Despite some complex record locking between files, the number of operations which link to Inventory Control, and the way Inventory Control can be accessed make it almost impossible to achieve absolute 100% control of the millions of transactions which take place.

System users can do a great deal themselves to minimise the risks by employing good housekeeping practices.

The recent presentation by Optimus showed all too clearly the benefits to companies of controlling stock, and this is not just a computer issue. It also comes down to staff training and company systems and procedures.

Members complain that "housekeeping is inconvenient", as in many instances users need to be off the system. It is my experience that most users can continue working while the system is down to do month end processing etc. providing they are given sufficient warning. Tag housekeeping tasks into these times as well.

Let us look at some of the prime causes of error and what can be done to correct them.

• Purchase Orders are not always delivered in strict accordance with requirement. There may be shortages, often production is able to be completed without the need for the shortage to be delivered. Purchasing staff do not always check the status of incomplete orders. These can and do cause errors in Inventory Control and need to be managed.
• Goods Receipts are often not properly matched to P/O lines with under deliveries being accepted and P/O lines left with more items still to come. Often with schedule orders this may be made up in the next delivery, but an over delivery will be accepted against the next P/O line. Action needs to be taken either to train the Goods In staff or to better manage the process.
• Works Orders contain consumable items some are marked to be issued "as required", others may have incorrect quantities for what are deemed consumable materials. This may well result in both manual issues and manual returns, both of which will cause un-expected movement in stock balances.
• Works Order de-kits are one of the greatest causes of potential error when they are done online especially where the W/O contains lots of consumables, and was issued with shortages.
• Sales Orders are the inverse of the P/O process and the potential errors are the inverse of this process.

So what can be done to overcome all these potential problem areas. The answer of course is in your own company procedures, and the training of staff to carry them out. You need to perform the following on a regular basis.

• Do a regular review of Purchase Orders that are not marked as complete. If they have outstanding items that are never going to be delivered, close them down by doing a zero GRN and marking it with no more to come. Do a GRN to accept services if that is the cause of incompletion.
• Archive completed orders by date on a regular basis. (Suggested quarterly)
• Carry out a similar procedure with S/O's
• Carry out the housekeeping tasks on all your modules, and where possible archive the data, it will improve the performance of your system.
• Try and minimise the cancellation of W/O's that have been issued and subsequently withdrawn and de-kitted.

If you are performing the various housekeeping tasks on a regular basis, the number of Inventory errors should be small, possibly none at all.

If all this fails, yes, you will need to run Recalculate Stock, and you will need to obtain a password from your reseller to do it. If your files are in a well maintained state, and you are only holding current files, this should not take long.

There will always be howls of protest from users even when you give them plenty of warning about locking them out of the system, its part of the pain the system manager has to endure. Your users will however thank you - maybe, for having a system where the information can be relied upon.