SmartChoice Food Pantry Inventory Management Software
SmartChoice manages more pounds of inventory than any other Food Pantry Inventory Management Software solution that exists – tens of millions of pounds of food at any given time. As the undisputed leader not only in size, but even more importantly in performance and functionality, SmartChoice offers the best and most comprehensive solution for your food pantry. Finding the right inventory management software that best fits the needs of your food pantry, has all of the necessary functionality, is fast and reliable, cost-effective, and avoids the many pitfalls and shortcomings of second-rate inventory management systems is crucial for truly optimizing your pantry’s operations, reducing spoilage, maximizing warehouse space constraints, minimizing warehouse personnel requirements, and serving more clients and in a more highly-dignified manner. SmartChoice Food Pantry Inventory Management Software seamlessly address all of these issues so that you are in the best position possible to optimally manage your inventory and food pantry's operations.
Benefits of SmartChoice Food Pantry Inventory Management Software
-
On-Time Replenishment: Dynamically track food inventory in real time to identify replenishment needs and reduce out-of-stocks (e.g.- Days of Inventory Remaining by pantry item)
-
Spoilage Reduction: Identify food spoilage risk for perishable items currently in excess stock so that proactive measures can be taken (e.g.- special promotions, inventory transfers, etc.)
-
Improve Ordering Frequency: Analyze inventory turn rates by food pantry item in order to optimize future food ordering quantities and timing
-
Optimization of Costs and Constraints: Effectively manage warehousing space constraints, personnel scheduling and headcount, delivery logistics, and working capital (cost of holding inventory)
-
Improve Client Dignity: For online client food ordering, with SmartChoice’s virtual pantry shopping interface, you can eliminate client disappointment with food items being “out-of-stock” at pickup or delivery by displaying in the shopping interface only items that are currently in stock, through the integration of the real-time inventory management system
Why is SmartChoice Food Pantry Inventory Management Software essential for Digital Food Pantries?
If your food pantry is going to offer online food ordering / shopping – or any type of remote ordering for that matter, including via telephone, then it is critically important to have a directly-integrated food pantry inventory management system in place to support that. SmartChoice was specifically designed with this purpose in mind.
From an inventory management perspective food pantries are very different than supermarkets due to the fact that inventory replenishment of specific food items is far less controllable. Food pantries don’t typically have the luxury of ordering and re-ordering specific food items on-demand as needed.
Larger food pantries may be able to place orders with food bank partners and other suppliers, however, typically they are only able to do so for the highest volume products that are in the greatest demand. Lower volume food items that are still important to pantry clients are typically far more difficult to be replenished to inventory. The bottom line is that food pantries have less control over available inventory. The result is that what they have in stock at any given time varies greatly from one day to the next. Imagine from a client’s perspective what that would look like when they shop at the food pantry’s online store and select the food they need and want, but then when they go to pick it up, or when it’s delivered, most of their selections are missing because those items were out-of-stock. Hardly a satisfying and dignified experience.
What if instead the online shopping interface dynamically only showed items that were actually available at that exact point in time – and once those items were selected by the shopper they were automatically reserved for them? SmartChoice's food pantry shopping portal and inventory management functionality are directly integrated with each other, and are thus explicitly designed to deliver those exact types of dynamic and seamless client experiences, resulting in a truly dignified and satisfying experience.
Key functionality of SmartChoice's Food Pantry Inventory Management Software that is missing in other solutions
-
Barcode and QR code scanning: The key to an effective inventory management system is efficiency. There should be no bottlenecks in the operational logistics of the inventory management software. As food items and other products arrive at the pantry for inventory intake it is absolutely essential that they’re able to be loaded into the inventory management software quickly and efficiently. With SmartChoice, an inventory clerk is able to use a wireless handheld scanner, to scan into inventory an entire pallet of food, a case of food, or even a single unit with a quick barcode scan, allowing a food pantry to manage the inventory intake process with only minimal headcount resources, saving money and time. When a barcode or QR code is scanned for intake, the item is automatically recognized by SmartChoice and entered into inventory.
-
Keycode Entry: For items that cannot be scanned into inventory (no barcode or QR code), SmartChoice offers an easy-to-use and efficient mechanism for keycode entry. PLU codes for fresh produce, custom manually-created codes (e.g.- for bundled items/baskets), etc. are be able to be entered into inventory in a clear and seamless manner in a matter of seconds.
-
Product Lookup and Search: For intake of products without barcodes, QR codes, PLU’s, or custom codes, with SmartChoice's quick search functionality, pantry items are easily searchable and quickly displayed to the inventory clerk so that they can be immediately entered into inventory. Alternatively, if preferred, SmartChoice also offers an intelligent hierarchical product directory, so that the inventory clerk has multiple options at their disposal to quickly load inventory in a manner most fitting for each particular situation.
-
Integration with Online Ordering Interfaces: Unlike SmartChoice, a standalone inventory management system significantly limits the available benefits of such a system to a food pantry. Instead, a pantry’s inventory management software should be fully-integrated with its online ordering and in-person POS market shopping checkout software in order to deliver the full benefits available. Otherwise the data feedback loop is not closed, and when items are shopped and ordered online or selected during an in-person market checkout, the inventory software won’t know that the selected items’ inventory was reduced. Similarly, during an online – or any type of remote shopping experience – a shopper will see out-of-stock food items as being available to them when, in fact, they are not, thus severely diminishing the client experience. Other systems may falsely claim to have some level of integration, but only SmartChoice offers this real time and comprehensive shopping-inventory integration continuum.
-
Inventory Visibility, Analysis & Reporting: A key benefit of SmartChoice's inventory management system is for administrative and warehouse personnel to be able to view in real time as well as point in time the current inventory status across all its food and non-food products. SmartChoice's low inventory reporting system and associated automated alert functionality will prevent and/or limit out-of-stocks. Its excess inventory reporting will identify spoilage risks and reduce spoilage for perishable items or allow for valuable physical warehouse space to be better utilized. The SmartChoice Advanced Analytics Module will help users gain insight into inventory turnover rates and days-of-inventory at an item or SKU level, which will allow warehouse managers to better plan and schedule order replenishment, reduce working capital, and minimize food spoilage and waste.
-
Transferability: In combination with inventory visibility and analysis/reporting, SmartChoice is designed to transfer knowledge and insight into direct and immediate action. The ability to react and utilize this type of data not just for future planning and purchase timing optimization, but also for real time actions, including inventory transfers, is vital for reducing spoilage and freeing up available warehouse space. The SmartChoice food pantry inventory management software therefore helps effectuate the easy transfer of food both internally and externally. For example, if a food pantry has excess inventory of a perishable item such as broccoli that is at risk of spoiling, an inventory manager can use SmartChoice to externally transfer that excess inventory to another local food pantry that is in need of that same item – and even be compensated for it. Similarly, if the agency also happens to operate a soup kitchen, congregate meal or packaged meal program, the agency can transfer that excess-quantity item from its food pantry to one of those other programs, thereby filling a real need while at the same time eliminating spoilage.
-
Adjustments: Although significantly reduced directly as a result of the implementation of SmartChoice's food inventory management system, spoilage, waste, and loss/breakage do still occur. As a result, it is essential that a food pantry’s inventory management software easily allows for corresponding adjustments to be easily made to the inventory database. Not only does SmartChoice incorporate this functionality, but equally important, any such adjustments are automatically tracked and fully-auditable by the system to allow for full reconciliation, minimization and correction of human error, and inventory loss prevention.
Summary, Conclusion, and Next Steps
SmartChoice delivers an unparalleled, premier quality, and fully-integrated food pantry inventory management software system, which is of critical importance for today's modern food pantry to operate efficiently, reduce headcount and spoilage costs, save valuable physical warehouse space, and deliver a dignified and satisfying experience to the food pantry client. For more information or to view a live demo contact a SmartChoice representative to see all of the benefits and cost savings opportunities available to your pantry – or schedule an in-person visit to a SmartChoice food pantry near you.