According to Vocabulary.com – “If something is stale, it’s no longer fresh. Ever bite into a piece of bread that’s been left out a little too long? Chances are it’s stale, or dry and hard to eat. Try making some croutons out of it.”

What is stale inventory? The optical industry defines inventory items as stale when frames have been sitting on your boards taking up valuable space for more than 90 – 120 days without a sale. It’s important to track stale inventory monthly. It should also be an important part of your inventory review with your frame brand sales representative (Other key metrics: stock, sales, turn-rate, best sellers).

One of the setup steps at WaveRFID is defining your workflows. Workflows are the reasons you are placing orders and also the steps that should be taken when that frame arrives. This setup step always leads to this discussion – Is it OK for your staff to order frames for patient approval?

In accounting, inventory shrinkage (sometimes shortened to shrinkage or shrink) occurs when a retailer has fewer items in stock than what is represented on their financial balance sheet. This difference in the physical count and the expected inventory is the shrinkage. This discrepancy may be due to procedural errors, goods being damaged, lost, or stolen. Shrinkage directly affects profits and ultimately can impact the success or failure of a business. 

“How many frames SHOULD I have in my inventory?” is one of the most common but also most important questions an optical manager should ask and answer. It is a close sister to a more basic  question – “How many frames DO we have in our inventory?” If you are one of the many, the busy and the stressed you might struggle to answer.