Cycle counts for small warehouses.

What a cycle count is

In a cycle count, you count a small set of items or locations on a regular schedule instead of counting the whole warehouse at once. Over weeks or months, you work through all of your stock.

Some businesses run cycle counts alongside a yearly full count. Others drop the full count, once their accountant agrees the cycle counts are enough.

Decide what to count, and how often

You don't need to count every product at the same frequency. A common approach sorts products into three groups:

• +A items: the small share of products that make up most of your sales value. Count them most often, such as monthly.
• +B items: the middle group. Count them less often, such as quarterly.
• +C items: slow, low-value products. Count them once or twice a year.

Add any bin where a pick recently came up short, and any product that just had a stock adjustment.

Count by location

Count bin by bin rather than product by product. You'll find items stored in the wrong place, and you'll catch stock someone put away in a second spot.

Pause picking and receiving in a bin while you count it. If you can't, note the time of the count so you can match it against orders that moved stock at the same moment.

Count blind

Give counters the location and the product, but not the quantity your system expects. Counters who can see the expected number tend to find it.

Investigate before you adjust

When a count doesn't match, recount first. If the difference holds, look for the cause before you change the stock level. Check for a receiving error, a mis-pick, a unit mix-up such as a case counted as a single item, or damage nobody recorded.

Record the cause with each adjustment. After a few months, those notes show you which process needs fixing.