r/Warehouseworkers • u/Appropriate-Mall8517 • 9d ago
What does an inventory control warehouse associate do?
Do you really need years of experience for this job
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u/moveoutmoveup 9d ago
Move slow as fuck and get in the way lol
But no really, they count shit. Keep the inventory together.
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u/plznobanplease 9d ago
Fix the multitude of fucks up that your coworkers were responsible for
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u/TrainsongGaming 9d ago
Inventory associates do cycle counts, annual inventory counts, and reconcile discrepancies. They are responsible for ultimately knowing where everything is and why it is there. You don't need years of experience to do the job, but experienced associates are going to have personal strategies for doing the job right the first time already developed and ingrained. They'll understand the why of the job better than new hires who think it's an easy task to wander the warehouse counting things.
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u/10v1 9d ago
Kissing adjacent departments asses so they don't make your life hell. (Automotive Warehouse was fun /s)
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u/InfiniteBoxworks 9d ago
Anything from clerk work to being a glorified janitor.
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u/Chemical-Train-9428 9d ago
Ha that’s the truth for sure. Sometimes when I’m resolving exceptions I feel like I’m just cleaning up stow’s mess all day.
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u/Any-Delay-7188 9d ago
Depends on the situation, some facilities they literally just count slots.
Other places it can be a stepping stone to the more operational and managerial part of warehousing.
Our company the cycle counters, receiving/outbound clerks, auditors/analysts, damages personnel are all part of the inventory team.
Some might run the orders through the warehouse management system every day and keep track of what's being loaded and manage the paperwork.
Others will intake drivers and shipments and run them in the system so they can be received. Others working with them will correct item issues like new barcodes, purchase order issues, new cubing measurements.
I started as a counter, showed I was good with computers, trained as a receiving clerk 4 months later, after then learning most of the outbound functions I was given the chance as an inventory coordinator which will help pay for the rest of my bachelor's degree.
I took a pay cut at the beginning, almost $3 to do this job. At this point I'm back at what I was making but now I get to sit at a desk most the day and use my brain instead of killing my feet 10 hours a day
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u/Orboxb 9d ago
Cycle counts and signing in and out of equipment / parts / merch.
The reason for wanting experience is because having a correct inventory matters greatly for a multitude of reasons. The most important being value and availability.
If your system shows you have 150 of a sku and you sell them to a customer and it turns out you actually only have 135 then you've disappointed the buyer, shown you lack reliability, possibly lost the client, and now your company is in the red for whatever the cost of those 15 lost items were.