Analyst Insight: Optimizing inventory safety-stock policies without considering capacity and material constraints is not enough. Inventory management should be viewed within the context of a supply and demand balancing process associated with S&OP. Rough-cut capacity planning within the S&OP process should be augmented with inventory analysis.
Analyst Insight: If an organization fails to accurately manage its warehouse, it runs the risk of selling stock it doesn't have or retaining stock it should have sold. Both of these situations result in lost revenue and potentially unhappy customers.
Analyst Insight: In Aberdeen's Supply Chain Executive's Agenda 2009 study, the following top market pressures were reported by the process industry respondents: economic and financial volatility, rising supply chain management costs, escalating customer service demands, and rising business complexity of managing an increasingly global business network. Process industry firms have a number of differences in the way they manage their manufacturing and supply chains and are now increasing their focus on supply chain performance.
Analyst Insight: Maturation of inventory management in organizations often follows a somewhat linear path from the technical basics of planning to the organizational issues encountered in sales and operations planning (S&OP). Coordination between product development and planning may not be the last hurdle, but it has been a major stumbling block that many mid-sized firms are increasingly overcoming.
Analyst Insight: Leading companies doing business in China - both sourcing and selling to the local market - are revamping their supply chains to minimize costs and empower their growth agendas. China is leading the world economy out of its current recession, and executives are looking to supply chain improvements to fuel their own company's comeback.
Analyst Insight: Although companies were able to reduce absolute inventory levels by 10 percent from Q3/2008 to Q3/2009, a closer look reveals that Days Inventory On-hand deteriorated by 7.5 percent, resulting in excess working capital requirements of $50bn for the largest 1,000 U.S.-headquartered public companies. If not regained, this lost efficiency will become a more significant cash drain than expected in 2010.
The latest news, analysis, trends and solutions regarding inventory planning and optimization and its impact on supply chain management. New technologies in inventory planning and optimization are transforming the way companies operate - and allowing them to stay ahead of the competition in their industries. As these solutions continue to evolve, businesses are discovering new ways to increase efficiency and cut costs. Learn how companies around the world are using inventory planning solutions for supply chain optimization.
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