If you’ve taken a basic accounting class, you probably already know about ABC scheduling. If you’re uninitiated in nerd jargon, ABC scheduling is a method used to account for inventory shrinkage, categorizing every item in your inventory by its value and risk of loss. High value, frequent loss items fall in the A category.

If you were a technology retailer, these would be small, easily stolen, high-end electronics, like smart phones. High value, lower loss items are in the B category. This would be something like computer monitors that can cost a lot, but are harder to steal or damage. And the C category would be lower cost, lower risk items, like inexpensive headphones.

You can use these same categories to streamline and maximize your inventory security. Your building or warehouse probably has rooms, corners, closets, shelves, etc. that vary widely in their level of security. So when it’s time to reorganize your inventory storage, don’t get too distracted by the desire to make Tetris shapes stack together perfectly.

Set out to put your A-level inventory into A-level storage, where it will be least likely to be stolen, damaged, or misplaced. If you don’t have such a place yet, talk to your commercial security provider about installing a special A-level security zone. Then work your way down through levels B and C, until all of your property is put away in appropriately secure locations.

The same concept applies to your display shelving. Strategize so that your products are displayed not just for sales and aesthetics, but also with an eye toward keeping your most vulnerable inventory as safe as possible. Then your shrinkage will be what shrinks.