The Hidden Costs of Uncontrolled Field Inventory

Supply Chain Café by PICS Belgium supported by ABCAL 25.09.2025
Speaker: André Huynen

At this PICS Belgium webinar, André Huynen, Head of Sales & Marketing at Ventory, examined the financial and operational impact of poorly managed field inventory—an area often hidden from standard ERP or WMS oversight.

Exposing the Real Costs

André guided participants through three categories of hidden expense:

• Direct costs – overstocking, obsolete or expired parts, emergency purchases, higher storage and insurance fees, and losses through theft or damage.
• Indirect costs – manual stock checks, employee downtime, inaccurate records, diminished customer satisfaction, and reputational damage.
• Operational costs – equipment downtime, unnecessary site visits, and regulatory non-compliance leading to audit failure or penalties.

Interactive polls revealed that many organisations underestimate these “invisible” drains on profitability, with a majority of attendees reporting moderate to high impact from at least one category.

From Visibility Gap to Strategic Advantage

Modern supply chains are increasingly decentralised and complex, making spreadsheet or manual tracking unsustainable. André demonstrated how Ventory’s SaaS platform brings real-time visibility from central warehouses down to forward stock locations, consigned stocks locations and engineers’ vans. Key features include barcode-driven mobile scanning (online or offline), audit-ready reports, role-based web dashboards, and easy API integrations. Typical results within 90 days include:

• > 99 % rolling stock accuracy
• > 70 % reduction in stock-outs
• > 35 % excess-stock reduction
• Rapid deployment: from a few hours to maximum four weeks

A case study with Elteros, a European building-management specialist, showed how these capabilities translated into more than €20 000 monthly savings while simplifying reporting and customer billing.

Another one with RNWBL, one of North America’s largest energy storage solutions providers, showed how they reduced downtimes and proactively managed spare parts at (very) remote locations.

Self-Assessment Checklist

To help participants gauge their own exposure, André shared a quick diagnostic:

The exercise underscored a key takeaway: you cannot manage what you cannot see.

By quantifying these hidden costs and adopting modern inventory technology, supply-chain leaders can move field inventory management from a costly black box to a strategic source of efficiency and customer value.

Thank you for being there!