by Jon Schreibfeder | Nov 1, 2019 | Analysis, Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters, Replenishment Source, Stocking Decisions, Warehousing
How Much Should You Buy? Part 1 By Jon Schreibfeder Over the past several months we have been reviewing the basics of setting replenishment parameters to ensure that you achieve the goal of effective inventory management: meeting or exceeding your customers’...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Oct 8, 2019 | Analysis, Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters, Stocking Decisions
Unrealistically Short Order Cycles Lead to Anarchy By Jon Schreibfeder The order cycle (also commonly known as a review cycle) is the length of time (usually expressed in days) between when you can issue target replenishment orders with the primary supplier of a...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Sep 30, 2019 | Analysis, Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters
Managing the Frequency of Purchase Orders Over the past several months, we have been reviewing the critical components of determining when to order a product and how much to order. This month we continue our discussion with the order cycle (also known as the...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 6, 2019 | Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters, Replenishment Source, Stocking Decisions
Fine Tuning Safety Stock Quantities There is a simple, best practice residual inventory analysis that will help ensure that the safety stock quantity you maintain for each item is “just right”. To perform this analysis: Record for each item, the forecast...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Aug 5, 2019 | Best Practices, Consulting, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters, Replenishment Source, Stocking Decisions
Using Residual Inventory Analysis in Fine Tuning Your Safety Stock Quantities Over the last several months we have been discussing various ways of calculating safety stock quantities. If safety stock quantities are too low, they will not provide adequate...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jul 10, 2019 | Analysis, Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Purchasing, Replenishment Parameters, Stocking Decisions
Protecting Customer Service – Part 2 Last month we began a discussion of safety stock. That is, “insurance inventory” to protect against unusually high demand or delays in receiving a replenishment shipment from the supplier of an item. Though we found...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Jun 10, 2019 | Best Practices, Forecasting, Order Cycles, Replenishment Parameters, Replenishment Source, Stocking Decisions
Protecting Customer Service – Part 1 Over the last several months, we have been discussing when to order products in order to meet your customers’ expectations of product availability. We have explored various methods for calculating accurate forecasts and...
by Jon Schreibfeder | May 17, 2019 | Best Practices, Replenishment Parameters
Monitoring Unusual Lead Times The anticipated lead time is the length of time (usually expressed in days) it will take to replenish the inventory of a stocked item. Last month, we advised you to manually maintain anticipated lead times based on the longest normally...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Apr 16, 2019 | Best Practices, Replenishment Parameters
In order to meet or exceed your customer service goals, you must reorder a product when you have enough left in your warehouse to meet customer demand during the time it takes you to obtain a replenishment shipment. For example, if you sell 2 pieces per day, and it...
by Jon Schreibfeder | Mar 15, 2019 | Best Practices
If one of your warehouse employees walks past an item lying in the middle of a warehouse aisle, or out of place on a shelf, 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...
