Inventory Planning Blog

​What COVID-19 has taught us is that change is constant, unforeseeable, and sometimes very disruptive.We need to take a moment to consider where we are and where we need to go. The future is coming fast. Change for change’s sake and the status quo are no longer relevant. In fact, these attitudes are detrimental. Smart innovativethinking and planning are the new norm.

Valogix Customers Tell Their Story During COVID – Part 2

Inventory planning is going through a dramatic upheaval due to COVID-19. Moving forward in time, each new history month provides one more piece of data to help determine the direction of things and how it may vary across your products. Each day/week/month things are changing. Your sales and management team may have further insight to where your immediate customers think things are going. Management may have to curb spending. Things may have happened to your competition that impact your stocking strategy. The end result of your analysis should be an inventory plan or strategy, so that you can best decide how to use the tools you have available.

The COVID-19 Pandemic is presenting a serious challenge when it comes to inventory forecasting, planning and replenishment. Cases range from plummeting sales and closed businesses to unprecedented peak sales, to extended lead times, to short or unavailable stock and raw materials. Further, the general consensus at the moment, is that the immediate impact as described above will be followed by either an upturn or return to more normalized levels and a gradual return to available stock. Then, there is the unknown question of if the virus will return in the fall/winter and what kind of impact will be felt then.

Customers are holding suppliers and retailers’ feet to the fire. They want items in-stock and shipped fast and on-time. Effective and efficient supply chain inventory planning teams are critical to meet the ever-increasing demands of customers. Teams are gearing up to meet the company goals and ways to achieve deliver service excellence. There is a dizzying array of solutions and methods companies employ to manage their supply chain hoping to manage their unique challenges.

Here are some of our customers talking about the increased inventory performance and control they have with VALOGIX Inventory Planner.

What a triumvirate!

Customers will always demand more of suppliers to provide affordable products at the exact moment they want them. How can you effectively insure you have what your customers need when they need it?

Aftermarket service or spare parts inventory management is a prime candidate for advanced inventory planning software. With many diverse parts to manage and a lack of power tools, most companies with parts inventories have too many of the wrong parts. The result is unnecessary inventory expense, while still suffering service-limiting stock-outs.

Manual efforts to improve this situation fail, because of the time-intensive nature of the problem. A large number of parts, each with special considerations, quickly bog down someone trying to improve the parts purchases.

The Part One of Inventory Forecasting covered an overview to inventory forecasting and the techniques available. This post continues to review the approaches to inventory forecasting.

This blog post provides some basic information about viable inventory forecasting techniques. Forecasting is one of the key steps in inventory planning but not the only one. There are other key variables and processes that come into play in good supply chain replenishment planning including inventory rationalization and optimization.

Complexity around the world due to social, medical and confrontational disruption seems to be the new norm. Serious viral infections have been on the rise for many years and will be with us forever. Now, is the time to advance the state of your inventory planning by incorporating solutions based on scientific inventory optimization algorithms.

Recently, Valogix and business partner DSI Global announced their 2020 expert Series Webinar program. The goal is to provide companies with specific information from leading industry experts to help improve their supply chain performance.

COVID-19 is presenting a challenge we have never experienced before. Supply chains across the globe have been upended. Companies are struggling to make sense of their inventory demand forecasting and stock replenishment planning.  Cases range from plummeting sales to unprecedented peak sales and to longer lead times, to unavailable stock. This may become the new normal. 

Your company has a mission to be the best supplier of your products on the market today. Most companies define what that means in terms of serving the customer. For example, your customers can send you an order and get a return confirmation promptly. You will ship all orders within 24 hours. You will offer a variety of products that is both broad and deep. All great goals to build and grow a business. Now, you go out and spend a ton of money on the inventory. To buy smart, you use economic ordered quantities (EOQ) and take advantage of your vendor’s special deals.