Inventory Planning Blog

In our final installment of our series on The State of Inventory Planning, we explore the results of inventory planning and optimization solutions.  Companies that implement these  solutions often find the results surprising.  Many thought their old Excel spreadsheets were doing a fine job, only to discover a whole new world of information at their fingertips, allowing them to make informed decisions that really do affect the bottom line! 

Typically, companies achieve a reduction in inventory by 20%-40% (and more!), reduced expediting and emergency shipments by 35%, improved productivity by reducing planning time by 60%, and controlled and reduced replenishment spending by 15%.  Inventory solutions are more robust than Excel spreadsheets (and less prone to error), offer dynamic information and give the user visibility to not only actual inventory on the shelves, but that on the planning horizon.  There are several areas of the business that are positively affected by inventory planning and optimization solutions.

Cost Reductions and Avoidance

• current and long term inventory investment

• physical space requirements – (rent, contents insurance, heat, light and power, etc.)

• emergency shipments

• expedited orders

• current, open replenishment orders

• future purchase quantities

• planning time

• service technician call-backs for on-site service repair calls

• manual processes

• mistakes and errors

• lost sales

• lost customers

Increased Revenue Generation

• 1st time fill rates for new orders

• 1st time completion rates for service repair calls

• repeat sales

• cross-sell/up-sell

• employee satisfaction

• customer satisfaction

• asset utilization (ROA)

Improvement in Productivity

• employee utilization and effectiveness

• vendor relations

• first time fix rates for (service organizations)

• employee satisfaction

• inventory process reliability

If your SMB is still using clunky, out-of-date Excel spreadsheets and plug ins, what are you waiting for? You don't need to be a enterprise-level company to take advantage of enterprise-level technology.