Inventory Planning Blog

There are some distinctions of business purchases, strategic and non-strategic. Strategic purchases are those that have a direct effect on the business and the bottom line. Non-strategic are those for everyday items like office supplies, travel, commodity items, etc. In the case of manufacturing companies, strategic purchases can be raw materials, production equipment, energy, skilled labor, computers, and business operating software.

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Tags: advanced inventory planning solutions, cloud computing, Demand Planning, forecasting, optimized inventory planning

Tags: Inventory Planning, in the Cloud, advanced inventory planning solutions, cloud computing, web based inventory planning

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?

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Tags: cloud computing, Supply Chain

What is your position about planning in the Cloud? What are your competitors doing or likely to do? Are they staying the course on-premise or are they adopting new methods and technologies to improve their business performance? Are they already in the Cloud

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Tags: cloud computing

Advanced inventory planning solutions are known as decision support software. This means they are smart systems that forecast and plan optimal inventory requirements. They are superior to commonly used types of software; standard inventory transaction software and spreadsheets. Many of these solutions are both strategic and tactical tools. They cover long range inventory budget planning down to daily replenishment and problem solving.
 
Comparison to Spreadsheets
 
Spreadsheets are manual, time consuming. They do not provide intelligent part mix management and part specific forecasts. In addition, spreadsheets are extremely difficult to update and maintain current data effectively, plus they normally cannot be interfaced directly with enterprise and customer relationship software. Conducting quality assurance on the calculations and models is also difficult and based on a study by a leading international consulting firms over 90% of spreadsheets they audited contained significant errors. These errors led to the loss of millions of dollars.
 
Comparison with Standard Inventory Management other or Control Systems
 
Almost every inventory solution is a transaction (accounting) type system. This means they keep track of the physical movement of items on and off the shelf. These are “dumb” systems, meaning they are static and cannot intelligently determine what to stock, project demand, or create a complete replenishment plan. These systems are based on 40 year old plus, methods using ABC as the only part classification technique. They do not have leading-edge Exception Management capabilities which provide "alerts" to the User for unusually occurrences.
 
What Inventory Management Software can do:
 
• keep basic part information like: part number, description, cost, dimensions, etc.
• track parts movement: received, on order, on shelf, removed from the shelf, etc.
• provide a basic reorder point and min/max settings
• record the different bin locations where parts are stored
• provide an order for new parts needed, using standard reorder point, min/max, and safety stock
 
What Inventory Management Software cannot do:
 
• provide a system generated forecast or offer multiple advanced forecasting methods
• manage repair parts and their repair cycle (reverse logistics)
• provide an optimal inventory mix to improve service level while reducing cost
• offer multiple stocking and reordering policies
• manage parts specifically required for PM (preventative maintenance) schedules
• help to reduce overstock and excess part inventory
• manage by exception and provide key user alerts.
 
What Advanced Inventory Planning Solutions CAN DO:
 
• forecast parts demand with multiple models appropriate for different demand patterns
• plan for unlimited part and location combinations (scalable)
• provide advanced calculations for calculating shelf stock and reorder points
• calculate the optimal mix based on dynamic demand changes
• provide time phased plans and order for both new and repair items
• manage by exception and provide alerts to the planner
• identify overstock and excess inventory and provide redeployment strategies
• plan parts for preventative maintenance schedules
• multi-echelon or theatre planning - can plan at every stocking level both real and virtual
      (from master warehouse to stock kept with a field or service engineer)
• plan part life cycle, substitutes and supercedes, and end-of-life parts
 
Combining Transaction Systems + Advanced Planning Solutions
 
Advanced planning solutions do not replace the existing transaction systems. Instead, they are designed to complement and improve existing software. The best of all worlds is to add an advanced planning solution to an existing transaction system. This provides a more complete, robust system that dynamically plans based on what is happening now and projected for the future. Download our free whitepaper to find out more!

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Tags: Inventory Planning, cloud, inventory optimization, web based inventory software, cloud computing, Demand Planning, replenishment planning, Spreadsheets

Discover an affordable, seamlessly integrated inventory planning optimization solution to SAP Business One for small and midsize businesses. A solution that frees up your resources (including cash), reduces losses from obsolescence, and increases service levels. The tools you need to forecast, plan, and optimize inventory, manage your business more efficiently and meet the demands of customers and suppliers are powerful and affordable.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP, SAP Business One, inventory optimization, Forecasting Inventory, advanced inventory planning solutions, cloud computing, Demand Planning, replenishment planning, Wholesale Distribution, Supply Chain, Partner Awards, Valogix, inventory management

Did you know that certain inventory planning solutions are easier to use than ever? Until recently Small and Mid-size Businesses (SMB) did not have affordable, easy to use software tools to help them effectively manage and balance their inventory investment. Software solutions that forecast, plan and optimize an inventory are found in widespread acceptance in large enterprise companies but these solutions can cost between hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, take months to implement and are generally not affordable or usable by SMBs.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP, inventory optimization, Forecasting Inventory, optimization, cloud computing, NetSuite, Demand Planning, replenishment planning, Wholesale Distribution, Supply Chain, inventory management

If you're a technology nut, you've  probably heard  about  SuiteWorld, NetSuite's premiere conference for all things cloud.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, cloud computing, SuiteWorld, V8, #NSW11

Every once in  while, we like to toot our own horn.  One of our newer customers, and a long time NetSuite customer, Inkjetsuperstore.com (www.inkjetsuperstore.com), recently shared their  experience with implementing VALOGIX Inventory Planning V8 (our SaaS product).

"We are using the Valogix cloud-based application and it was a great decision. It allows me to do my planning anywhere, at any time and is a natural fit with our NetSuite applications," said Ilan Douek, President of Inkjetsuperstore.com.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, cloud computing, NetSuite, Valogix

If you're still using spreadsheets of yesteryear to plan your inventory, you are doing too much work. Constantly updating spreadsheets and trying to remember where you made changes leads to errors, resulting in stock outs and over-stocks – and costs you time and money.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, cloud, inventory optimization, Forecasting Inventory, cloud computing, replenishment planning

Tags: cloud, cloud computing, Savvis, Cisco, Valogix

Join us Tuesday, December 7 at 11:00 am EST for the Cisco-hosted webinar to discuss the results of the recently released Cisco’s IBSG consulting group survey on cloud computing. The results of the survey are useful for both Service Provider and Enterprise organizations.

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Tags: cloud, cloud computing, Savvis, Cisco, Brian Klingbeil, Scott Puopolo, Valogix