12 Days of Inventory Optimization
One of my favorite Holiday songs growing up was “The 12 Days of Christmas.” There was something about Christmas having 12 days that put me in the holiday spirit.
Creating Detailed Customer Order Allocation Data for Yearly Volume Contracts
A guide on how to improve material planning using a more detailed volume allocation of customer orders. It is a common business practice to write up yearly contracts for the volume. Very often, this is done to extend volume discounts to the customer. That is obviously a benefit to the customer. The supplier benefits by knowing how much to budget for in terms of production through the year. They can also count on the revenue coming in.
Effect of Customer Order Lead Time on Safety Stocks
What's the effect of customer order lead time in inventory management and safety stock calculations?
ABC Segmentation for Inventory Management
A look at how you can use product and customer ABC segmentation for Inventory management.
How to Track Your Inventory Stock Out Levels Using These Severity Codes & Alerts
In an ideal world, your products would have on-shelf availability whenever your customer needs them. However, this is often not the case for many businesses. It’s also essential to note that, not all stock outs or out-of-stock(OOS) carry the same severity levels or require the same form of actions. In this blog post, we’ll discuss a simple coding system using descriptive analytics that can help you easily identify different severity levels for your stock out.
How to Measure Inventory Effectiveness
I discussed some of the possible pitfalls when using inventory turnover as a measurement for effective inventory management. In this post, I’ll describe a simple technique for measuring inventory effectiveness.
Look beyond the Turnover Ratio! Here’s a Simple Way to Create an Effective Inventory Management Process
Use this simple tool for identifying areas of potential improvement in the business to create an effective inventory management process. This type of measurement allows for a more widespread understanding of the nature of inventory and fosters action to prevent a build-up of non-value-adding "drag".
[Webinar] Inventory Planning Methods & Tips for Optimizing Your S&OP Process Today.
Join us as we discuss how to use inventory or supply planning to properly calculate and project future inventory taking into consideration capacity constraints.
What is the bullwhip effect and How do you minimize it?
The bullwhip effect is a concept for explaining inventory fluctuations or inefficient asset allocation as a result of demand changes as you move further up the supply chain. As such, upstream manufacturers often experience a decrease in forecast accuracy as the buffer increases between the customer and the manufacturer.
Who Should Take Ownership of Finished Product Inventory Management?
I mean who suffers directly when finished product inventory runs amuck by level, mix, or availability? Well, we all do, don’t we? After all, if we made it and can’t sell it, what have we done? Or, what if we promised it to customers but haven’t made it? Until we give finished goods velocity, no profits roll into the business meaning, no revenue (assuming when it sells, it gains velocity). Just think of the other side of the coin when it goes to the scrap heap for a write off (terminal velocity).