by Jon Schreibfeder | May 1, 2010 | Stocking Decisions
Today, most companies that distribute products are adding more new products to inventory than every before. Not only do these new items allow distributors to meet their customers changing needs, they also present the opportunity to penetrate new markets. Adding new...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 1, 2006 | Analysis
Your warehouse is probably filled with repair parts for the equipment you’ve sold. What profit do you make when you sell a part? Well, if you ask a salesman he may say, “That’s easy, we average a 25% gross margin on all of the parts we sell!” But does your...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Apr 1, 2006 | Vendor Managed Inventory
A customer agrees to give you all of his business. All you have to do is maintain an adequate inventory of the products he uses at his facility. What a deal!!!! Large, frequent orders from a customer. No one “nickel and diming” you to death. Wouldn’t any...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 1, 2005 | General
Returns are a problem for many organizations. Often returns are dumped in a pile to be “sorted out when time permits.” Dust and dirt cover this material as workers have more important tasks to perform. During a physical inventory or warehouse cleanup, the...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 4, 2005 | Analysis
Distributors, manufacturers, and retailers often stock thousands of products. Properly managing the physical inventory and replenishment of these items is a challenging task. While most buyers and salespeople realize that not all items are equally important to...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jun 1, 2004 | Purchasing
Most computer systems provide buyers with out-of-stock reports. These are listings of stocked products with no available inventory. Because the stock-out sales orders cannot be filled, salespeople cannot provide the service their customers expect. Buyers scramble to...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Feb 5, 2004 | General
Lean manufacturing is helping producers throughout the world reduce inventories, lower labor costs, and increase their overall efficiencies. The same concepts embraced by lean manufacturing practitioners can help distributors achieve the goal of effective inventory...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 2, 2004 | Analysis
How do you know if you have too much, too little, or just the right amount of stock inventory? One way is to compare the value of your current inventory to an “ideal inventory investment.” In this article we will discuss how to calculate the value of this...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 1, 2004 | Analysis
Most distributors spend a lot of time developing sales projections and budgets for expenses. Each month these forecasts are compared to actual sales and expenses. If sales are lower, or expenses higher than what was projected, management will usually take corrective...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jul 1, 2003 | Physical Inventory – Cycle Counting
Cycle counting is the process of verifying the on-hand quantity of a specific number of stock products every day. In previous articles, I have described how to set up and maintain an effective cycle counting program and why this process is usually better than a full...
