Effective inventory management is critical for the brewing industry. It involves keeping track of raw materials, work in progress and finished goods to ensure there's enough inventory to meet demand while minimising waste and cost. The goal is to have the right amount of inventory at the right time.
Let's start by discussing how raw materials are managed in Abbl.
Raw Materials
Raw materials are the basic ingredients used in brewing and packaging, if this is all done in-house. These materials need to be carefully managed to ensure that there's enough inventory to brew and package your beer.
When adding your raw materials, you need to ensure you have added all your:
Hop varieties
o Category: Hops
o Class: Material.Hop
Grain varieties
o Category: Grain
o Class: Material.Grain
Yeast varieties
o Category: Yeast
o Class: Material.Yeast
Adjuncts i.e. fruit purees, lactose, sugars, coffees, vanilla etc
o Category: Adjuncts
o Class: Material.Adjunct
Packaging i.e. brand specific or generic cans, can ends, brand specific labels, 4 or 6 pack carriers, brand specific or generic boxes etc
o Category: Packaging
o Class: Material.Label or use the default Inventory.Basic
We recommend that you don’t include items such as cleaning chemicals or brewing salts. These can be classified as brewing overheads or direct costs in your accounting software as they will have minimal impact on the cost of each individual batch.
Abbl has the ability to associate multiple suppliers for raw materials – for example if you purchase your Ale Malt from two suppliers and you’re happy to use it interchangeably, simply name your SKU as Ale Malt. If you want to use brand specific malt, simply name your individual SKUs as Ale Malt – Supplier 1 and Ale Malt – Supplier 2.
Beer SKUs
When adding items into your inventory, you will also need to go through and add in all your individual beer brands. For example, we have a Pale Ale. You will need to add:
Pale Ale – Keg
o Category: Core or Limited
o Class: Inventory.Keg
Pale Ale – Carton
o Category: Core or Limited
o Class: Inventory.Carton
Work In Progress
Moving on to work in progress, this refers to the beer that is currently being brewed but not yet finished. This includes beer that is fermenting, aging or undergoing any other stages of the brewing process. The cost of the work in progress includes the cost of the raw materials used to brew that beer.
Once a batch has been packaged and completed in Abbl, it now sits as finished goods
Finished Goods
Finished goods refer to beer that's ready to be packed and sold. This includes beer that's canned, bottled, or kegged. The cost of the finished goods includes the cost of the raw materials used to brew the beer and the cost of the packaging materials.
Selling Products
Once you have set up all your inventory SKUs, it’s important to allocate them to saleable products.
Products define how inventory skus are sold through your Sales Channels. Products can be a 1-to-1 relationship with an inventory sku, a portion of, or a composition of multiple skus. This allows you to be able to track your beer to the can in a carton, without difficulty.
And that’s it! Your ready for brewery inventory management
Effective inventory management is crucial for every brewery. With proper inventory management, brewers can increase their efficiency and profitability while meeting customer demand.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Abbl's inventory management system, please don't hesitate to email through support.