The process of inventorying consists of performing direct inventory measurements, i.e. Indeed, only inventory movements are accounted for, and the measure of the stock on hand is typically inferred from the history of movements. However, in practice, the stock on hand is not accounted for through direct measurements, at least not systematically. However, more traditional segments such as fruits or vegetables are still frequently sold by the weight.Īs units associated to a SKU are assumed indistinguishable, at any given time, the state of an SKU is defined by its stock on hand value. The vast majority of goods being sold nowadays are packaged lead to strictly integral values for the stock on hand. The stock on order represents the amount of inventory in transit that is already due to replenish the SKU in the future. Stock on handEach SKU is associated with its stock on hand which represents the number of units readily available for consumption (or picking) at the SKU location. SKUs matter because they represent the most fine-grained level, hence the most desirable level for inventory optimization. Thus, even when considering a single location, a single product can be associated to multiple SKUs. Even if the majority of the items are stored at a single location within the store, some items may be sold at several locations, hence generating extra SKUs.Īlso a product may have many variants based on attributes such as size, color or conditioning. It is also possible to have multiple SKUs for the same item within a single store. For example for a given product (ex: a book as identified by its ISBN barcode), a retail network can have as many SKUs as there are locations where the book can be stored typically one SKU per store and per warehouse. productsUnlike a product, a SKU is bound to a particular location. SKU are sometimes used to refer to intangible items such as warranties, however, in this article we focus on SKUs that have a tangible counterpart. Introducing the notion of SKU simplifies most inventory control operations. All units stored in the same SKU are supposed to be indistinguishable. The SKU is intended as the most disaggregated level when dealing with inventory. In the field of inventory management, a stock-keeping unit or SKU refers to a specific item stored to a specific location. By Joannès Vermorel, last revised August 2013
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