nICS - nForce Inventory Control System

nICS Overview:

Inventory management is made up of several key components:

1. Inventory control: In order to ensure inventory accuracy, access to the inventory storage locations must be limited to authorize personnel only. All inventory transactions must be initiated with a material request and flow through the formal fulfillment model. Approval bottlenecks can be minimized by active reporting and delegating approval authority throughout the supply chain.
   
2. Cycle counting: Physical inventory counts are extremely labor intensive and can be difficult to reconcile inventory variances because of the time and transaction volume that occurs between counts. In this case, we implement a cycle count strategy for all storage locations. Each day, after the end of day routine, the system will prompt the warehouse personnel to count the inventory in selected storage locations. This cycle count routine will require the warehouse personnel to blind count the storage locations that the system selects. In other words, the user will only be told to count the parts in a designated storage location. Once the count is complete, the user will enter the part numbers and quantity counted in the storage location. This system will compare the information entered with the inventory records and send a summary report will be sent to the accounting department. Any discrepancies will be reconciled the following day and will be tracked in the system until the records are reconciled.
   
3. Reporting: A series of standard reports will be developed to provide management with the information they need to manage the business.
   Reports included:
   • Purchasing report by vendor activity
   • Receiving Logs (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly)
   • Shipping Logs (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly)
   • Inventory Accuracy Reports
   • Inventory Amounts

Application servers:
The power, speed, and security of the Internet allows nForce Solutions Pte Ltd to serve up the Order Management System and Inventory Control System from our data center in Singapore. This scenario allows us to utilize existing hardware and leverage existing network management resources to ensure non-stop performance.

nForce’s network consists of three application servers and a data back-up server that provides daily back-up of critical data. nForce Solutions Pte Ltd accesses the Internet through a broadband connection with guaranteed 2 Mbps bandwidth.

Handheld Equipments:
Mobility for receiving and picking operations will be provided by a handheld computer. In this space, there are two options to consider:

1. Cradle synchronization – Data captured and stored on handheld computer until user drops handheld into cradle for synchronization.
   
   
2. Wireless synchronization – Data captured and transmitted via wireless connection to the Internet/Application Server.
   

Barcode Printing:
Barcodes will be required for serialized product and may be expanded to other applications over time.