NEWTON, Mass. – It's one thing to do continuous inventory counts. What you do with the data is quite another thing.

Visible Inventory, a startup company in Salem, N.H., believes it provides distributors an advantage by "taking action" on inventory counts. That involves linking distributors with their suppliers and providing real-time internal notification of inventory status.

The company's Suppli-Link™ 2.0 software enables users to automatically manage inventory status for each product in a database, where they can monitor and identify changes instantaneously. The firm also makes sensors called iBins, which measure and wirelessly communicate item quantities to the software. From there, quantity, status and reorder information can be viewed via the Internet or email.

"The product consists of a variety of sensors that give you instantaneous inventory counts, and SuppliLink uses this information by automatically taking action," says CEO John Toomey. "We're instantaneously monitoring levels in supply rooms, depots, MRO storerooms, or wherever."

As soon as parts in a work cell get to the reorder point, the software sends a notice to suppliers for replenishment.

SuppliLink works with existing enterprise resource planning or supply chain management systems.

"If you're running SAP or Oracle ERP, we try to accelerate the process," he says. "If you're doing bar coding, it works with that, but you're getting quicker replenishment of parts."

The firm's top industrial customers and prospects include contract manufacturers and integrators. "Anything we can do to increase turns and reduce inventory helps them," says Michael Maloof, director of sales and marketing.

Using the tools, employees may cut the time and cost associated with inventory oversight and manual parts replenishment, reduce supply shortages and overstocks, and maximize inventory turns.