Inventory control is the process of managing the quantity, location, status, and movement of materials, components, work-in-process, and finished goods. In manufacturing, it focuses on keeping inventory records accurate enough to support production, purchasing, quality, traceability, and fulfillment decisions.
Inventory control commonly includes receiving, put-away, issuing material to jobs, transfers, cycle counts, adjustments, reservations, and stock status changes such as available, on hold, quarantined, or allocated. It is often supported by ERP, MES, warehouse management systems, barcode scanning, and lot or serial tracking.
The term is closely related to inventory management, but the emphasis is slightly different. Inventory management often covers broader planning decisions such as stocking policy, replenishment strategy, and working capital. Inventory control is more concerned with execution accuracy: whether the system record matches the physical material and whether material is available for the correct use at the correct time.
In regulated or quality-sensitive manufacturing, inventory control also supports traceability and material segregation. For example, a lot-controlled component may need to be received, inspected, released, issued to a specific work order, and recorded against the finished product record.