Tracking raw materials as they are moved between storage locations and manufacturing areas in a high volume environment are difficult at best. In many instances production line personnel are not immediately notified of the arrival of product into the manufacturing area. This results in more product than required being requested and the loss of product by having it buried in and around product that may already be there.

Affixing bar coded labels to pallets or containers of product before it is stored provides a means to scan those containers as they arrive in the manufacturing area. As containers are emptied the labels may be scanned to signify that the product has been used. The containers can then be refilled and labels reassigned to other product.

Capturing the emptying transaction can be used as a trigger point to bring more products forward. Instead of generating requests based upon forecasting or back-flushing algorithms, these requests can be made based upon actual usage. This can reduce the amount of product movements and the amount of product that winds up in the manufacturing area unnecessarily.

The use of hand held scanners can augment this by allowing the users to record labels that are in the storage areas for spot checking and QC purposes.

Because of the increased visibility provided by the use of this technology the need to run frequent physical inventories in these areas is reduce dramatically or eliminated.