by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 2, 2000 | Purchasing
A few weeks ago a Canadian distributor emailed me with a very interesting situation: “The vendor of one of our seasonal product lines has an interesting program to encourage us to stock a lot of their products. At the end of the popular season, they give us a...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 5, 1999 | Physical Inventory – Cycle Counting
In a previous article, “Do Your Employees Understand the True Cost of Lost Material?” we discussed the fact that many employees don’t realize the value of your stock inventory and may “borrow” products or take samples for their personal...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 10, 1999 | Analysis
First, let’s define “inventory turnover.” Turnover is the number of times you sell your average investment in inventory each year. Turnover is calculated with the following formula: Cost of Goods Sold from Stock Sales during the Past 12 Months...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 5, 1999 | Forecasting
Some items, like beach umbrellas, are more popular in summer than in winter. On the other hand, portable heaters enjoy much higher sales when the weather gets cold. These are seasonal items. But the weather is not the only factor that determines whether or not an item...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 1, 1999 | Forecasting
In 1987, Gordon Graham wrote a book, Distribution Inventory Management for the 1990s. In this book, Graham described what he considered to be the best method for forecasting the future demand for both seasonal and non-seasonal products. Let’s take a quick look...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jul 1, 1999 | Replenishment Parameters
Theoretically, it should be easy to determine when to reorder a stocked item from a supplier. If you know that customers will order ten pieces of the product each day, and you know that it will take seven days to get the shipment from the vendor, you should reorder...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 5, 1999 | Stocking Decisions
The Inventory Actuarial Table Most distributors carefully consider each new purchase of capital equipment. Every truck, desk, and computer purchased must have the potential for increasing profitability of the company. After all, money doesn’t grow on trees, and...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Feb 10, 1999 | Analysis
I’m going to begin this article with two assumptions which should be true for all manufacturers (who maintain stock inventory), distributors, and retailers: You stock material to meet your customers’ expectations of product availability. You are in...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Feb 9, 1999 | Analysis
A common measurement of the performance of your stocked inventory is the customer service level. It measures how often you have the items you’ve committed to stock when your customers want them. The customer service level is calculated with this formula: # of...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Feb 8, 1999 | General
Doing one thing well often leads to doing other things well. This is true in many areas of business, including inventory management. Have you ever noticed that successful manufacturers and distributors have clean, organized warehouses? And companies in a perpetual...
