by Jon Schreibfeder | Jun 15, 2018 | Best Practices
I recently visited the distribution center of a large national hard goods distributor. This company is experiencing a significant problem with the amount of excess inventory in both their distribution center and their 100 store locations. We have to eliminate this...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 15, 2018 | Best Practices, Warehousing
Your policies and procedures must be enforced in order for you to achieve effective inventory management. Often companies will promote the warehouse employee who knows most about your inventory to the position of warehouse manager. Unfortunately, unless this person is...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Apr 15, 2018 | Best Practices, General, Warehousing
If one of your warehouse employees walks past an item lying in the middle of a warehouse aisle, do they pick it up and put it in its proper location? Do they pretend not to see it? Do they feel they are too busy to deal with it? Do they kick it out of the way? The...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Mar 15, 2018 | Stocking Decisions
Last month we began a discussion of ranking your inventory using three different criteria: Frequency of sale or use (i.e. the number of times the product is requested regardless of the actual quantity requested) Profitability (i.e., annual gross profit dollars) Cost...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Feb 15, 2018 | Stocking Decisions
When I talk to a client, they often refer to their “A” items. That is, those items that are most important to have available for immediate delivery or use. When I ask them how they identify “A” items, the most common response is total cost of goods sold recorded over...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 15, 2018 | General
It’s 2018. Make this the year your organization achieves the goal of effective inventory management. That is, to meet or exceed your customers’ expectations of product availability with the amount of each stocked item that will maximize your organization’s...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Dec 15, 2017 | Stocking Decisions
I worked with a distributor last week that had over 100 locations selling directly to end users. Despite the fact that over 35% of the distributor’s inventory (based on value) was in excess of a one-year supply and that most locations were experiencing frequent stock...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Nov 15, 2017 | Stocking Decisions
Last month, we discussed safety stock as a necessary cost of doing business. It is required to help you prevent stockouts. But this insurance is expensive. We don’t want to provide a specific item with more safety stock than it needs. The deviation method of...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Oct 15, 2017 | Stocking Decisions
Safety stock provides protection against stock outs due to unexpected demand for a product or delays in receiving a replenishment shipment from a supplier. It is insurance. Like most other types of insurance, it is an expense and there is no “right” or optimum...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 15, 2017 | General
Many organizations assess profitability by calculating the gross margin of products. Gross margins are calculated with the formula: Annual Profit Dollars ÷ Annual Sales Dollars The problem with this metric is that the amount of inventory maintained in stock is not...
