by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | General
In these current economic times, most companies are trying to find new ways to liquidate unneeded inventory. In the next two newsletters we are going to explore some effective ways to achieve this goal. Remember that inventory you buy is a “sunk” cost....
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | General
In today’s economy it is critical to remove the “fat” from your warehouse. Every dollar in inventory must be working as hard as possible for you to achieve your inventory-related goals. One critical element is to ensure that your stock inventory...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Analysis
In a quest to minimize your investment in inventory, the consistency of vendor lead times can have a major impact and deserves your examination. Consider the following situation. I was working with a customer a couple of months ago who had major problems with...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Replenishment Parameters
A few months ago we published an article entitled “Trimming Inventory While Maintaining a High Level of Customer Service.” In that article, we suggested that you “micro-manage” your fast-moving products by ensuring that forecasts are accurate...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Forecasting
Promotions are designed to increase sales of particular products over a short period of time. In order for predictions of future demand to be as accurate as possible, it is important both to include the anticipated effects of a particular promotion in calculating a...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | General
Current economic conditions have caused many distributors to experience a decrease in sales and lower profit margins. There is less money available to invest in inventory. But in order to remain competitive, distributors must maintain a high level of customer service....
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Purchasing
Many vendors offer larger discounts when you buy more of their products. But how do you know whether these offers are really good deals? This month we will show you a quick and easy way to decide whether or not to take advantage of a price break. In our example the...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Analysis
In this column we will try to answer common questions faced by companies and organizations trying to achieve effective inventory management. If you would like to submit a question, please email it to [email protected]. If we use your question, you will...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | General
Most companies want to achieve the goal of effective inventory management: “Effective Inventory Management allows a company to meet or exceed customers’ expectations of product availability with the amount of each item that will maximize net profits or...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 19, 2012 | Replenishment Parameters
Computer systems maintain the stock of inventory items with parameters such as minimum and maximum quantities. Some of these parameters are objective – that is, there is one right or optimum answer. For example, an economic order quantity balances the actual cost of a...