Knowing Your Paper Inventory

Knowing Your Paper Inventory: The Key to Customer Service

By: Erin Mahan

Pretend you take orders for a 
converting company.  It’s 
about 10:00 a.m., your second cup of coffee is starting to finally kick 
in, and you’re beginning to settle into your daily routine.  
The phone rings.  It’s 
one of your company’s most important customers calling to place an 
order.  Acme Printing tells 
you they need 10,000 pounds of a product right away.  
No problem.  After 
checking the computer to see if you have what your client needs, you 
eagerly assure him that you will fill the order right away, and that they 
can expect to receive it within a couple of days.  
No sweat, right?

Well, a few hours later, you find 
out that the core of the roll is damaged, rendering the majority of the 
roll unusable.  Suddenly, you 
realize that you are unable to fill an order for one of your most valued 
customers.  What do you do now?

This is an unfortunate situation.  Not being able to process and fill orders for customers in a 
timely matter will do serious damage to company-client relations, and in 
the long run, damage a company’s reputation.  
Like every business, converters rely on the customer to be 
successful, and so customer service is of the utmost importance.  Customers should be able to rely on their converter to have 
what they need, when they need it.  This 
includes being able to provide quality, reliable service every time, and 
avoiding incidents like the one mentioned.

In order to provide excellent 
customer service, converters must be able to process and fill orders 
without any problems.  Knowing 
exactly what materials are on the lot, the material’s condition, and how 
much is readily available is the only way to guarantee an order, and keep 
customers satisfied.  Thus, 
the only way to know exactly what is available is to have absolute 
visibility to the lot and on-hand inventory.  
Complete visibility to inventory allows the film converter to know 
without a doubt what is on the floor, and whether there are any problems 
with the material.  Being able 
to spot a damaged good before it is too late, and simply knowing at all 
times what condition the materials are in is vital to the order taking 
process and also the functionality of the company as a whole.

Achieving 
total visibility and control of all materials is not impossible.  
It can be easily accomplished by using a software program that 
tracks materials by allowing for detailed searches and thorough 
descriptions of all inventory.  It 
eliminates all visibility problems, including overlooked damage.  
Unfortunately, generic software lacks this capability.  
Only a fully integrated software program that tracks inventory 
perpetually can provide converters with the ability to see and efficiently 
utilize all aspects of their operations.  
Full integration reveals the full extent of the converter’s 
resources, helps avoid errors, and most important, allows companies to 
better serve their customers.

About PaperSoft

PaperSoft Inc. is a global provider of 
ERP software applications developed exclusively for the converting 
industry. PaperSoft helps converting companies reduce waste, labor costs, 
downtime, and allows revenue growth without adding personnel. These 
improvements are achieved through integrating functions into one system 
that are typically maintained in multiple systems, i.e., Microsoft Excel 
and other third party generic accounting packages.