All Blog Posts

3 Steps for Making Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Work

  What is vendor managed inventory?   In theory, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is a mutually beneficial system for optimizing inventory flows and ...

IoT Inventory Management: eTurns SensorBins vs Actylus Smart Bin System

    Summary: Next-gen VMI software allows distributors and their customers to manage inventory-on-hand with IoT weight sensors. Keep track of supplies ...

Cycle Counting Methods: 4 Tips for Greater Efficiency

  Quick Take: Manual cycle counting methods are time-consuming, inefficient and prone to inaccuracies. With digital automation, you can perform stockroom ...

2 Inventory Management Trends to Watch in 2022

  Summary:  eTurns talks inventory trends to watch in 2022. 1) New technologies like SensorBins™ and electronic shelf label systems for ...

6 Effective Inventory Reduction Strategies for Stockrooms

  Stockroom and service truck inventory managers have typically stocked inventory so there’s always product to meet demand, even if it ...

What is PunchOut? How eTurns Digitizes PunchOut Order Management for Stockroom Replenishment

  If you’re the stockroom inventory manager for an organization with special supplier pricing agreements, you know how labor-intensive it can ...

How IoT-Driven Inventory Management is Transforming Stockrooms

  The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical items with embedded sensors that exchange data with other systems ...

Automated Supply Replenishment Systems Are Key To Efficient Stockrooms

  Since COVID-19 hit, demand for essential items skyrocketed, customers closed their facilities to outside sales reps, labor shortages worsened, and ...

What Are The Best Inventory Replenishment and Approval Workflow Models? Punchout, Quotes, etc.

  With today’s labor shortage, it is important to make stockroom inventory replenishment as efficient as possible.    Automating this process with actual ...

Best Inventory Formulas and Ratios to Boost Efficiency in Stockrooms

Optimizing inventory on hand in a point-of-use location takes knowledge of inventory principles and formulas, as well as the tools ...

Key Inventory Metrics for Contractor Service Truck Fleets

    If you’re a contractor with a fleet of service trucks, how do you manage your truck inventory and measure whether ...

IoT Case Study: Gexpro Services saves customer $200k/yr by optimizing inventory with eTurns Trackstock SensorBins

With its previous supplier, a large Gexpro Services customer in Colorado had no visibility into the inventory replenishment process and ...

Kanban Inventory Control: How IoT SensorBins Improve On This Traditional Method

    If you’re a stockroom manager, you know how the past two years have affected your job. With containers full of ...

Case Study: Electrical Distributor, SMC, Moves From Pen and Paper to Automated Inventory Replenishment

  Andy Wolfe, SMC’s Director of Inventory Management Services, noticed many of the distributor’s accounts followed the same pattern: “Fire drill” ...

The Benefits of Lean Inventory Management for Stockrooms

  Lean management originated in Toyota’s quest for the perfect manufacturing process in the auto industry. In the 1940s, Toyota implemented ...

How to Calculate Optimal Inventory in Stockrooms and DCs

  Summary: Inventory optimization software replenishes stock automatically and manages inventory levels to cut carrying costs and eliminate the risk of ...

Guest Post in Manufacturing.Net: What to look for in an inventory management app

When implemented correctly, automated replenishment systems help guard against being over-stocked or under supplied. With the significant disruption in the supply ...

The Benefits of Min/Max Inventory Management

  Summary: By setting min/max levels based on actual usage data from the point-of-use in stockrooms and trucks, modern VMI replenishment ...

Guest Post: How Distributors Can Meet Consigned Inventory Cost-Reduction Targets

With the volatile supply chains sparked by COVID-19, many distributors were forced to thoroughly analyze inventory levels and reduce expenses ...

Distributors and the Shift to Digital Self-Service for VMI and CMI

  We all know that Covid-19 has caused many companies to increase their online presence to meet growing demands from customers ...

Guest Post: How Contractors Can Benefit from a Kitting Program (and How Distributors Can Help)

Well-managed kitting services allow distributors to add value and contractors to work more profitably. What is a contractor’s most expensive asset ...

Guest Post: 3 Ways Distributors Can Improve Productivity and Reduce Overhead for OEMs with Kitting

  Many progressive OEMs use kitting to increase efficiency and productivity. With kitting, or prefabrication, OEMs save time, eliminate bottlenecks in ...

How Distributors Can Meet Consignment Inventory Cost Reduction Targets with eTurns

  COVID-19 forced many companies to look inward, reducing unnecessary costs while maintaining great service levels. Distributors don’t want too much consignment ...

6 Best Practices to Win with Consigned Inventory

Forward-thinking distributors are using consignment inventory to ensure their top customers are stocked with the inventory they need – when ...

Inventory Management and Replenishment Apps: 10 Must-Have Features

  In the wake of the significant disruption in the supply chain this past year, many companies are looking to invest ...

How effective min/max inventory management can help your customers optimize their inventory

  What if you as a distributor could give your customers a min/max inventory management tool to tell them exactly how ...

Carrying Costs in Inventory Management: A Guide to Reducing the Cost of Inventory in Your Business

    Holding inventory in your warehouse or stockroom is great for ensuring customers have access to what they need, when they ...

Medical Inventory Management Solutions Buyer’s Guide

  Summary: Manually tracking inventory takes valuable time and energy away from your staff. Medical inventory management software improves this process ...

Kitting and Assembly Solutions: How Distributors, Contractors and OEMs Can Save Time and Increase Profit

  Summary: Kitting involves pre-assembling two or more related parts into a kit to sell as a single product. Kitting and assembly ...

How to Manage Consignment Inventory: Common Mistakes, Best Practices and Choosing the Right Technology

  By Ron Schroeder, VP of Supply Chain, eTurns           Summary: Consigned inventory has the potential to be a ...

Industrial Distribution Guest Post: How Suppliers Use Consigned Inventory to Strengthen Distributor Relationships

Consignment is helping manufacturers navigate complex supply-chain challenges with distributors' help. Guest article in Industrial Distribution by eTurns CEO Rock Rockwell   Typically, ...

How Manufacturers Use Consigned Inventory to Strengthen Ties to Distributors

  Typically, when you think about consignment, you think of distributors offering the service to manufacturers so they can save cash ...

Electrical Distributor Uses eTurns to Reduce the Order-to-Cash Cycle from 2 Weeks to 3 Days

  One eTurns TrackStock customer, an electrical distributor with $7.5 billion in revenue last year, uses our software in an exemplary ...

How to Provide Low- to No-Touch Inventory Management

Customer managed inventory (CMI) technology is far faster for inventory replenishment, eliminates price shopping and reduces the risk of error, ...

No-Touch Medical Inventory Management? It’s Possible with IoT Sensors

  Over the past few months, we’ve seen increased interest by medical clinics, EMS organizations and healthcare facilities in our Internet ...

Automate Your Team’s Manual Inventory Replenishment Tasks with eTurns

It’s surprising that so many companies still manage inventory with paper and a clipboard. Imagine how much time your team could ...

10 Ways eTurns Saves Distributors (and Their Customers) Time and Money

  Through automated replenishment at the point-of-use, eTurns helps distributors and their customers gain greater visibility into their inventory — and ...

An Untapped Opportunity to Slash Carrying Costs

An immediate struggle for many distributors is the sudden slowdown of incoming cash flow due to delays of projects, struggling ...

Embrace Customer Managed Inventory (CMI) in the Era of COVID 19

  While the right ecommerce website is necessary for distributors, a Customer Managed Inventory program supported by the right technology is ...

4 Causes of Forecast Error and How Distributors Can Avoid Them

Reconsider relying on sales history alone, pre-determined inventory agreements, keeping rare items in stock, and depending on sales reps to ...

5 Step to Prevent Overstocking and Understocking with eTurns’ Min/Max Tuning Slider

  When optimizing customer inventory, distributors should use actual customer usage data and realistic scenarios that eliminate unnecessary customer expenditures on ...

Case Study: eTurns Inventory Replenishment App Helps Urgent Care Provider Comply with COVID-19 Requirements While Improving Net Profit

Florida Advanced Spine and Sports Trauma Centers (FastMD) is an urgent care center for spine and orthopedic needs with four ...

Cash is King: Find it in Your Customers' Inventory and Your Distribution Centers

In the midst of this global pandemic, many distributors are frantically reviewing their business plans and finances to determine their ...

What is Demand Planning? How Technology Can Help Distributors Improve Service Levels and Cut Carrying Costs

It can be a challenge to know exactly what customers need and stock accordingly. One element of successful supply chain ...

Reducing the Sales Rep's Role in Forecast Errors

Sales reps tend to hoard customer information, often leading to forecasting errors that can hurt both the company and customer. ...

COVID-19 Crisis: 3 ways distributors are prepping for what is ahead

    While the distributors we talk to daily are thankfully not sensing a huge downturn in business yet, many are preparing ...

How to Reduce Forecast Error: Focus on Usage Data, Not Sales History

  To forecast demand and plan inventory needs in their own distribution centers and at customer locations, distribution companies tend to ...

Distributors: Consignment Inventory Management Costs Less Than You Think

Consignment inventory, when distributors stock and manage inventory at a customer’s site, is a fantastic way for a distributor to ...

eTurns Featured in MDM: Beyond the Basics of Inventory Management

An inventory management solution can bring about quick fixes for a distributor, such as cutting back on shrinkage or eliminating ...

eTurns Named a Top Performer in G2 Crowd and Capterra Reports

Irvine, Calif. Dec. 11, 2019 – eTurns, which offers the TrackStock mobile inventory app for automated replenishment to distributors and ...

Supply House Times article: "Rock Rockwell: How to Compete Against Amazon"

Imagine if a distributor's “Very Important Customers,” comprising around 80% of revenue, used automated inventory replenishment technology to manage their ...

Donald's Column -- eTurns TrackStock Tip: Use Our Customized Barcode Labels

Say goodbye to boring black-and-white, simple barcode labels. Take advantage of customized bar code labels within the eTurns TrackStock automated inventory ...

The Metrics Distributors Need to Optimize Their Distribution Centers

Rather than view the last 10 feet of the supply chain as the end of the road – what if ...

The Power of Precise Demand Planning™ to Compete Against Amazon

What if you viewed the last 10 feet of the supply chain differently? What if you saw it instead as ...

Donald's Column: Save Even More Time Using Touch ID or Facial Recognition with the eTurns TrackStock App

If you’re like most of the world, you feel you have too many passwords, and too much trouble remembering which ...

Want to Sell Your Distribution Business? Increase Your Value with Digital

The pace of mergers and acquisitions in the distribution industry doesn’t appear to be slowing anytime soon. A Deloitte report ...

Distributors Should Build a Moat to Keep Customers from Amazon

As Warren Buffet famously said, “A good business is like a strong castle with a deep moat around it. I ...

For Medical Suppliers, Automated Inventory Replenishment Saves Time, Money and Headaches

Two years ago, Lakes Region EMS in Minnesota typically carried 73 percent more inventory than it needed. And Smilebuilderz, a large dental, ...

MDM Guest Post: Going Digital Is Not Just About Webstores

Customers' desire -- really, their demand -- for an efficient transaction may have roots in the Amazon experience. But distributors ...

Case Study: How eTurns Helped Lakes Region EMS Reduce Inventory by 73%

eTurns Automated Inventory Replenishment Saved An EMS Provider Thousands of Dollars and Countless Hours – and May Even Help Save ...

Case Study: Smilebuilderz: 70 Percent Less Time Spent on Inventory Replenishment

How eTurns TrackStock Automated Replenishment App with barcode scanning helped a large dental practice gain insight into its inventory, enabling ...

Takeaway from the MDM Digital Distributor Summit: You Need More Than An eCommerce Site

Our takeaway from the MDM Digital Distributor Summit, which we were proud to sponsor this month in Denver, was this: ...

Donald's Column: 9 Tips for Making the Most of Your eTurns TrackStock

9 eTurns Hidden Gems For Maximizing Inventory Efficiency. eTurns TrackStock has many features that can help distributors and their customers work ...

What Is RFID? Can It Automate Replenishment In My Customer's Stockrooms?

RFID, or radiofrequency identification, uses information electronically stored in smart barcodes to track and identify inventory items.  When used along ...

Why Distributors Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Give Customers a Multi-supplier Mobile Replenishment App

It’s amazing how many distributors out there are afraid. They acknowledge that having real-time visibility of inventory and having automatic inventory ...

eTurns Sponsors MDM Digital Distributor Summit

eTurns is proud to be a sponsor of the upcoming MDM Digital Distributor Summit, June 18-20, 2019 in Denver. Designed especially ...

The Volatile Electronic Component Supply Chain: Take Advantage of a Moment of Calm

Distributors whose businesses depend on electronic components know a thing or two about supply chain uncertainty. In recent years, skyrocketing demand ...

eTurns Passed a Rigorous SOC2 Audit, Proving the Security and Availability of our Automated Replenishment Service

At eTurns, we’re not big on bragging. But we do want to share something we’re pretty proud of: We’ve earned ...

Donald’s Column: Reduce PO and invoice costs by over 95% with TrackStock’s consolidated invoicing for consigned inventory

Imagine your customer has 1,000 widgets sitting in consigned inventory in a warehouse. And let’s also say that over the ...

The biggest mistake distributors make? Not using technology proactively

With Amazon breathing down their necks, many distributors are busy trying to defend their revenue against the e-commerce threat. In today’s ...

Case Study: How a Service Contractor Slashed Inventory on Trucks by 30%+

For many years, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based warranty contractor Service America relied on a tier-one ERP system for tracking inventory. That ...

Donald's Column: 3 New Ways eTurns Helps with Service Truck Inventory Management & Work Orders

Distributors who have a large portion of their business riding, literally, on service trucks know too well the inventory and ...

Industrial Supply Magazine Guest Post: When Managing Customer Inventory, Drop That Pencil!

That’s what eTurns CEO Rock Rockwell says about improving the efficiency of inventory control for your customers. The pencil-and-paper method ...

How Automated Inventory Replenishment Can Help Distributors Grow Existing Customer Revenues

For most distributors, growing wallet share among existing customers is a consistent goal – and a constant struggle. But with automated ...

MDM Guest Post: Consigned Inventory Doesn’t Have to Be a Nightmare

Many distributors resist offering consigned inventory; the challenges of managing that inventory at a customer’s site is one of the ...

Donald's Column - Tips for Tracking Wire and Cable Inventory

If you deal with fiber optic cable or electrical wire, you’ve probably had this experience: arriving at a job site ...

How Distributor Bin-stuffing Can Be a Thing of the Past

When it comes to inventory, less is not always more. A centuries-old proverb admonishes that “For want of a nail, ...

Can Consigned Inventory Work for You?

To consign, or not to consign?   It’s a question that, sooner or later, most distributors will wrestle with.   Many distributors resist offering ...

Industrial Distribution Guest Post: Say Goodbye to Price Shopping

Whether you’re shopping for a new pair of socks or a front-end loader, low price is a good thing. But ...

How can distributors compete against Amazon? Automate replenishment with eTurns. It’s 10x faster.

Amazon may ship orders quickly, but they don't do automated replenishment of repeat orders well. So distributors have a huge opportunity ...

Distributors should use ecommerce sites to attract and educate customers, NOT to replenish.

Distributors should create an e-commerce site for only two reasons: attracting new customers and informing existing ones. The biggest mistake ...

Arrow Teams with eTurns to Deliver Optimized Inventories

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Arrow Electronics, Inc. and eTurns, Inc., the leading provider of remote storeroom inventory management cloud software, will team to ...

eTurns can expand the reach of your salesforce with IoT sensor-based inventory management.

When the article appeared in the last issue of American Fastener Journal about how eTurns eVMI sensor-managed inventory provides the ...

The American Fastener Journal features an article about how eTurns eVMI is a cost-effective alternative to vending machines for automating VMI.

Automating Vendor-managed Inventory (VMI) within OEM and MRO storerooms is becoming an increasingly important way for distributors and manufacturers to ...

Rexel Canada joins longtime Customer Rexel US in using eTurns

Rexel Canada uses eTurns VMI/CMI Replenishment Solution in their remote territories. They also use eTurns Remote Storeroom Inventory Management for ...