Evolutionary Thought Process and Strategy in Inventory Planning

​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 innovative thinking and planning are the new norm.

You need to embrace a new directive and a passion for managing your supply chain more efficiently and cost effectively. Here are some ways to help you embrace your passion:

• Adaptability - the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions and can be a significant advantage in a tough competitive global economy.
• Agile - Being agile means working in a lightweight, highly responsive way so that you can deliver your product or services in the way the customer wants and at that time the customer needs them. 
• Collaborate - work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something new and different. Critical to success with employees, customers and your vendors/suppliers.
• Diversify - enlarge or vary the range of products or the field of operation of (a business).
• Embrace - accept or support (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically "besides traditional methods, companies are embracing new technology"
• Innovate - make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
• ROI - Return on investment (ROI) is a financial metric that is widely used to measure the probability of gaining a return from an investment. Today, it also means qualitative gains in employee and customer satisfaction.
• Sustainability - the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level as in the sustainability of economic growth. It now also includes an environmental focus.

Companies approach their inventory planning in many different ways - from seat of the pants guessing, to team collaboration, to spreadsheets that may invoke more team collaboration and manual changes, to forecasting software and some to advanced planning solutions.

When it is all said and done most companies stay the course when it comes to inventory planning. There is fear to learning something new. Things can go wrong, lots of time to learn about new methods and ways of planning. Staying the course is felt to be safest route.

People are creatures of habit, which is one reason why spreadsheets and reports are reused from year to year. Unfortunately, after cutting and pasting information, the spreadsheet might not work the way it did before — formulas can be damaged, links can be broken, or cells can be overwritten. It is also a case of “you don’t know what you don’t know”. Meaning, people are unaware of the availability of easy to use affordable, automated inventory planning software.

Changes are occurring at lightning speed for all of us today. Consumers and companies alike have to contend with minute-by-minute information and change. The Cloud – Advanced Inventory Planning – Omnichannel – Social Media and much more impact today’s businesses. The options dazzle the mind, do we stay the course or change a little or change a lot.

The Cloud and an advanced inventory planning solution is a winning combination that allowsyou to work smarter by easily adapting all aspects of inventory management into one advanced, simple-to-use software product any time anywhere. The software lets all levels of employees understand and use the system.  Instead of having one staff member dedicated to inventory planning, any employee can quickly learn and operate the software. Utilizing existing staff helps to keep costs low while expanding their capabilities.

Advanced inventory planning and optimization software not only automates the entire planning process, it dramatically increases the positive cash flow of a company. By smartly reducing inventory investment, reducing stock-outs, decreasing expedited shipping costs, and reducing planning time all contribute to more available cash. Add to that increased sales and productivity and the gains will also lead to an improved competitive advantage.

Embrace a new strategy and processes now for better inventory planning, more positive cashflow and greater customer service and employee satisfaction.