Manufacturing companies are driven by speed and competition. Profitability is a factor of quality, and timely, efficient performance. Inventory control software enables companies to effectively manage their inventories. This software is an integration of technology with real-time data to help companies make the right decisions at the right time by providing competent database support, and implementation of all inventory-related activities in seamless exercise.

Manufacturing inventory control software should ideally adhere to all manufacturing standards and procedures. Some of the features of a model manufacturing inventory control software are: cost tracking, tracking of resources and components, instant access to all inventory information, generation of sales reports, customer data, vendor files and invoices at the click of a button. It should also help to support order scheduling, generating real time order status, linking to sales order, create job order, posting/canceling of job order, resource planning, real-time production status reporting and much more. It should also align with assembly manufacturing, process manufacturing, distribution, inventory contract management, supply chain management inventory, asset management, and even project-specific manufacturing functions.

Some manufacturing inventory control software packages are much smarter with additional features such as Bill of Materials (BOM), allocation, Material Resource Planning (MRP), purchasing, inbound/receiving, outbound/shipping, sales order invoicing, and reporting and analysis. Bar code generation and printing, GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) generation, PO receiving, pick and pack logic, materials issuance, real-time inventory adjustment, cycle count, grouping of inventory database, search capabilities to locate any information from the database, re-order or over-stock prompting using Min-Max levels, identification of obsolete and non-inventory items, tracking of batches or lots, import and export data routines, report generation, multi-user interface and a user-friendly transaction screen that allows the user to record or view information easily are some of the other common features. The software packages are also compatible with Just-in-time, custom-production or stock-buildup manufacturing processes.

Today, there is hundreds of manufacturing inventory control software tools available for all kinds of production needs. They can also be customized. A basic software package costs around $200, while a fully advanced, customized solution is priced over $2000.