EP 227: Portable Intelligence

On this episode, I was joined by Jeff Lem of Portable Intelligence who I recently shared a panel with for Sam Gupta’s WBSRocks. Jeff is the Founder and president of Portable Intelligence which looks to rethink the way that your warehouse operates. We discuss how Portable Intelligence came to be, inventory visibility and how to improve inventory accuracy.

Key Takeaways

• Portable Intelligence is focused on making your warehouse a competitive advantage. Jeff founded the company after building a barcoding business up and realizing that he had more interest in the software component. He set out to look at warehouse management systems in a different way by increasing visibility of not only the data that flows through the system but also the people that are utilizing the system in your warehouse. By setting up their system to trail your most experienced people, the system sets standards that give you the best knowledge of unique things like building the most stable pallet. Not something that you could necessarily get from just data.
• One of the big things that Portable Intelligence addresses are inventory visibility. In many cases, companies do not have full visibility into their inventory which can lead to many different issues. Without visibility, you are unable to truly track where your inventory is in your warehouse and it can seriously hinder your ability to deliver to your customer. We discuss a perfect example of how not having visibility into inventory can lead to people from all different departments constantly asking or checking themselves if inventory is truly in the building or where it should be. The increase in visibility can allow you to understand the true picture of your operation.
• While visibility into inventory is very important, so is the accuracy of that inventory. If you are viewing inventory that is not accurate then there is no point in viewing it in your system because it is incorrect. Jeff and I discuss how a lack of inventory accuracy can really slow down a company and hurt the trust that needs to be built up between departments within a company. Some of the advice Jeff gives to help increase your inventory accuracy is to ensure that everything is barcoded and to make sure that items are being properly returned to their locations when there is an issue. If these things do not happen you lose visibility and traceability which ultimately hurts your inventory accuracy. Jeff’s other suggestion is to set up a proper cycle counting program so you are constantly verifying your inventory before an issue arises for an order.

Listen to the episode below and let us know your tips for increasing inventory accuracy.