| The classical view of inventory data collection is that of employees filling out forms
of various kinds throughout the warehouse and production areas, which are then
forwarded to a central data entry location, where hordes of clerks keypunch the data
into a central computer database. Although this was a reasonably accurate view of
the situation in the past, the types of systems available for collecting information
are now more efficient and effective. These systems were developed because of a
growing recognition that traditional data collection methods require a great deal of
employee time that could be better spent on value-added tasks. Also, having a secondary
data entry step increases the likelihood of keypunching errors, which can
be completely avoided by some of the data collection methods discussed in this
chapter.
Some of the data systems that can be used to collect inventory information are
shown in Exhibit 1-1. They lie along a continuum that begins with loosely formatted
data, such as that found on a faxed document, and ends with perfectly formatted
data that can be directly entered into a computer system without alteration, such as
electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions or transactions entered through an
electronic form. A special case is document imaging, which can be tightly coupled
to a company’s computer systems or maintained as a freestanding system with no
linkages at all. Accordingly, it is surrounded by a larger box in the exhibit, indicating
the range within the exhibit that it can occupy. Based on the information in the
exhibit, it is evident that an inventory accountant should recommend installation of
the systems noted in the upper right-hand corner because they provide the best
means for collecting the highest-quality costing information that can be injected
directly into a company’s central database of costing information. |
