Stocktaking

Stocktaking is the task of counting the actual quantity of inventory held in a warehouse or store and checking it against the quantity in the books. It is carried out regularly in retail, manufacturing, and logistics, and it detects excess or shortage of inventory, loss, and deterioration. Physical stocktaking once or twice a year is common, but a growing number of companies are adopting cycle counting (a little at a time, every day).

In conventional stocktaking with barcodes, only the product code (GTIN) can be read, so lot numbers and best-before dates had to be checked by eye and entered by hand. With a QR code, the GTIN, lot number, best-before date, storage location, and receiving date can be captured in a single scan. The effort and errors of manual entry are reduced, and stocktaking time is greatly shortened.

Another advantage of QR codes is that a smartphone can be used as a stocktaking device. A dedicated handheld terminal costs tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen per unit, but a combination of a smartphone camera and a stocktaking app can be introduced without any additional hardware investment. For small and medium-sized businesses and independent shops, QR code-based stocktaking is a cost-effective option.