I read something strange yesterday. Someone posted a question in a gaming forum asking if it’s strange to enjoy the inventory management part of a video game more than the actual game. Hardcore gamers were immediately scandalized — the question was almost obscene. But eventually, people started coming out of the shadows. Dozens of deviants who secretly enjoyed the process of stacking and organizing inventory. Dragging and dropping their items into tiny little squares scratched an itch deep down inside.

The strange thing is that in real life inventory management is one of the most odious soul-sucking tasks that an employer can ask of an employee. I know this because my company keeps tabs on just how much people hate to count inventory at work. We even have a Twitter account dedicated to retweeting people who express just how much they loathe it (often in very colorful and vulgar ways). In fact our slogan has always been Inventory Sucks. We make it suck less. It would have been foolish to aim any higher.

The question on the gaming forum captivated me because I happen to know a little secret about inventory management from my work with all those poor, luckless, angry employees. The secret is that there’s a dark part inside each and every retail employee that really enjoys organizing inventory. Sadly, everything else about the process is absolutely infuriating. We learned very early on that if we could tap into this secret desire for order and symmetry we could help people manage real-life inventory in a much more pleasant way. So it’s no surprise that our software looks a lot like a game interface:

Fact: People love to put things in boxes. Fact: People like to put things on top of other things. Fact: People like to drag things from one box to another. These facts are incontrovertible. Just look at the success of the LEGO company.

Inventory software usually amounts to a glorified spreadsheet meant for mind-numbing data entry. We wanted to make a game. First you build a map of all your locations. You design it, you put in every location that you want to keep track of. You can move it around until it looks the way you want. Then you take your products and put them inside the locations. This is Drag and Drop Inventory for businesses.

Ok, so it’s not exactly a video game. But if there’s somebody strange enough to enjoy organizing inventory in a video game, maybe it’s not so crazy to enjoy organizing inventory at work.

Why exactly does it suck so bad?

I believe it’s because data lists and tables are not the best way for people to absorb information.

At CyberStockroom we wanted to approach inventory from a completely different perspective so we started with a very simple question:

Most inventory tools focus on QUANTITIES and PRODUCTS and don’t pay much attention to LOCATIONS.

So we asked ourselves What is a Location? And we realized that EVERYTHING IS A LOCATION.

So how do you organize a set of locations that are going to be different for every single business?

You let each business build its own map!

When you begin with a Map you can achieve some amazing visibility into your business and processes. The tutorial video below shows some of the basics:

Over the past year I have learned (and relearned!) an important strategy to use in this situation:

Start Backwards!

Last month I set a new goal for my business of landing 100 new paying clients. Using first principles I was able to find a few more ways that I could generate enough leads to convert but I felt a little powerless. There was a wall that I couldn’t get over. So I had the idea to start backwards.

Instead of asking

How can I get to 100 new paying clients?

I asked

If I had 100 new paying clients what new problems would I have to deal with?

This question opened up a whole new set of issues that I had been ignoring or suppressing. In fact it turned out that those issues were the ones preventing me from reaching that milestone in the first place!

Next time you’re stuck in a rut, try this simple trick. Ask yourself what would happen if you reach the goal that you’re currently aiming for. What new problems would arise? What would you do next?

I’d love to hear how other people get themselves out of a rut in these situations!

I get a bad feeling whenever I have to click a checkbox like this one because like most people I could never possibly read all the EULAs that I agree to. Maybe if I had a better grasp of legal documents I would be more inclined to read the agreements but something tells me that even lawyers just skip ahead and press the big shiny button.

Then I came across this:

It’s exactly what you think it is. The artist Robert Sikoryak created a graphic novel using the words of the Apple iTunes EULA. He adopts the styles of various other artists/comics to keep things fresh and gives us great dramatic recreations like this:

I admit that I would still find it very tedious to read through this entire thing BUT I would be much more likely to pay attention if all EULAs were presented like this.

You can read it here.

If you liked this article, please share and recommend it. Thank you!

If you’re like most people you barely care or notice the difference.

But if you’re a dairy truck driver in Maine USA, you care very much. 2 weeks ago that comma saved your overtime pay!

Here’s what happened. The law in Maine says that you can’t make an employee work more than 40 hours a week unless you pay 1½ times the hourly rate for those extra hours.

BUT the law has an exception called Exemption F which states that this overtime law does not apply to:

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

(1) Agricultural produce;

(2) Meat and fish products; and

(3) Perishable foods.

Notice anything wrong with that sentence? Right, it’s missing the Oxford comma. It says:

“packing for shipment or distribution of…”

instead of

“packing for shipment, or distribution of…”

If you’re a driver and your job is distribution, that’s a BIG difference.

Without the comma the law says that overtime pay is not required for packing (whether for shipment or distribution).

With the comma it says that overtime pay is not required for packing for shipment AND is also not required for distribution.

Judge David Barron who wrote the surprisingly readable ruling commented:

“We conclude, however, that Exemption F is ambiguous…For that reason, we conclude that, under Maine law, we must construe the exemption in the narrow manner that the drivers favor”

In all fairness the judge didn’t rule ONLY on grammar. He took the very sensible position that the law:

“should be liberally construed to further the beneficent purposes for which they are enacted.”

Meaning that he sided with the drivers to support the spirit of the law which is to encourage fair wages for overtime work.

Let this be a reminder to all of us to never underestimate the power of the smallest comma because our entire case may rest on it.

In the words of Judge Barron:

“For want of a comma, we have this case.”

Distribution companies have a unique challenge that is constantly threatening their business. Due to their position in the supply chain as intermediaries they experience extreme pressures from their vendors upstream and their customers downstream.

The vendors obviously want the distributors to take as much of their inventory as possible but this can be a big risk for the distributors. Along with the vendor’s products they are also taking on the risk of selling everything to their customers. The customers, on the other hand, work at their own pace. They buy whatever they want whenever they need it. Often they have unpredictable behavior and even the most loyal ones can’t be fully relied on all the time.

This makes the distributor’s job similar to walking a tightrope. Everything must be ‘just right’ or else the whole business is in danger of collapsing. It’s no wonder that distribution companies have such notoriously low profit margins.

The Distributor’s Main Task

The money in a distribution business is often tied up and this can be a big problem if margins are very slim. 3 things can be done to improve cash flow:

There’s not a whole lot of flexibility when it comes to dealing with vendors and customers and there is only so much that each party will tolerate. So once a distributor has negotiated the best possible deal with their partners, they are left with the task of optimizing inventory.

In fact we could say that:

Distributors are in the business of managing inventory.

To be successful a distribution business must:

1. Buy as little as possible from its vendors without risking its relationship with them.
2. Buy as much as is needed to supply the customers without risking stock-outs or over-stocking.

The Distributor’s Secret Weapon

For many years distributors and wholesalers have been complaining about a lack of ‘Inventory Visibility’. Software companies have struggled to offer solutions that target this problem. Often the solutions are very cumbersome and unintuitive.

The main disconnect between distribution companies and the software providers is that the problem of ‘Visibility’ is being understood metaphorically instead of literally.

The software companies think that they can provide more data, lists, and tables and that this will somehow be equivalent to visibility.

When I hear my clients talk about ‘Inventory Visibility’ I take them literally. They are looking for a way to see their entire operation in a VISUAL way. They want a bird’s eye view of everything at the same time.

That’s why I’m always thrilled to surprise my clients with the idea of using a MAP to manage inventory.

True Inventory visibility boils down to:

‘HOW MANY of WHAT do you have WHERE?’

When we phrase it this way it’s obvious that there are three components involved:

· HOW MANY = Quantities

· WHAT = Products

· WHERE = Locations

The best way to represent all three pieces of information at the same time is by using a map.

If you’re a distributor, the following 7 min video is well worth your time. You’ll see all the ins and outs of using a map to manage products, quantities and locations and to find that desperately needed VISIBILITY once and for all!

I encourage you to try this technique today and I promise you will be shocked by the amount of control and visibility you gain immediately by using an inventory map.

P.S. Message me if you would like a free private walk-through of CS software!