by Jon Schreibfeder | May 2, 2002 | Forecasting
A customer requests a product and it’s not in stock. They can’t wait for you to obtain the item so they purchase it elsewhere. You’ve lost a sale. That means you have lost the opportunity to earn a profit, disappointed the customer, and probably put...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jan 2, 2002 | Replenishment Parameters
It is no secret that an accurate forecast of the future demand of a product is crucial in achieving the four “rights” of effective inventory management: that is, getting the right quantity of the right item to the right location at the right time. As...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Nov 1, 2001 | Forecasting
I received a call from one of my customers this afternoon. “Jon, something is wrong with my demand forecast. We usually have a sharp drop in usage in January because several customers have shutdowns. But the forecast is recommending we stock almost twice as much...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 10, 2001 | Replenishment Parameters
I visited a large manufacturer last week to review their inventory management polices and procedures. I was impressed with their knowledge and the systems they had in place. As I spoke with various department managers, one question was continually asked: “How...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 2, 2001 | Stocking Decisions
In the past several months we’ve published several articles concerning the risk of new inventory items becoming dead stock. We’ve emphasized that you must carefully consider each new stocking opportunity. Unfortunately the decisions concerning stocking new...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 1, 2001 | Replenishment Parameters
Do the buyers in your company face a mountain of replenishment decisions every day? In the past several weeks I have worked with several firms that stocked more than 16,000 unique products in each of several warehouses. Their buyers seemed overwhelmed with the task of...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jun 1, 2001 | Replenishment Parameters
It is important to know your cost of carrying inventory. It is a critical factor in deciding what products to stock and when to reorder them, as well as the best quantity to order. Too often companies and organizations use an imprecise “rule of thumb” to...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 2, 2001 | Stocking Decisions
You want to stock the products that your customers request most often in your warehouse(s). But what about products with sporadic sales, or no sales at all? A recent article (not by this author) suggested that you should discontinue and liquidate the stock of any...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 1, 2001 | Stocking Decisions
Purchased inventory is a “sunk” cost. You’ve paid for it. No matter what it’s worth now, your money’s still gone. Compare it to shares of stock you may purchase in a company. The securities have “paper” value, but no real monetary value until...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Mar 1, 2001 | Warehousing
If one of your warehouse employees walks past an item laying 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...
