Reports and spreadsheets should be used to provide a basic level of information. However, many companies and planners use reports & spreadsheets to completely manage their inventory. To understand the use of these tools on effectiveness and efficiency in inventory planning let’s explore each one independently.
Tags: Inventory Planning, cloud, web based inventory software, NetSuite, Supply Chain Managment, IBM, mistakes, Spreadsheets
Advances in technology have allowed previous concepts like Time-Sharing and Shared servers and services to become a reality. Cloud computing today has real meaning and positive impact for companies in a true global economy. The future is that more business applications for mobile computing will be available and virtual software appliances will be developed.
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, cloud, inventory optimization, SaaS, NetSuite, IBM, Sage, Valogix
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, inventory optimization, NetSuite, IBM, Sage, Valogix
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP, SaaS, NetSuite, IBM, web based inventory planning, Sage, Valogix
Intelligent replenishment inventory planning includes several components, of which forecasting is just one element. Complete, automated planning systems handle all behavior including low volume items as part of a total process. Advanced planning solutions also incorporate inventory optimization, which dramatically improve replenishment planning. Why? Because optimization considers the wild cards in planning. It considers how random the demand of an item is, i.e., standard deviation and service level objectives, and it does it for each item, at every location, leaving nothing to chance (no spreadsheet can do that!)
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, SaaS, NetSuite, Supply Chain Managment, IBM, web based inventory planning, Sage, Valogix
How should a planner set the reorder point and reorder quantity (or order-up-to level) for thousands of items, perhaps at multiple locations? Due to the absence of an "intelligent‟ planning system, three commonly used approaches have been Brute Force Review, Economic Order Quantity, and Periods of Supply, usually done in spreadsheets.
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, SaaS, NetSuite, IBM, web based inventory planning
Companies approach their inventory planning in many different ways - from seat of the pants guessing, team collaboration, and spreadsheets. More and more companies are using forecasts either developed in-house or off-the-shelf forecasting packages.
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP, NetSuite, IBM, web based inventory planning, Valogix
In the vast majority of SMBs, spreadsheets are the common tool in use. They are time-consuming to build and maintain, are usually static data repositories, and according to a prior study by a major consulting firm over 90% of them contain significant errors. But they do serve a purpose. Inventory-laden companies like manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and aftermarket service organizations often see that inventory is their largest asset. The cost of carrying excess and obsolete stock, as well as not having sufficient saleable inventory to meet demand is enormously high.
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, SaaS, NetSuite, IBM, web based inventory planning, Valogix
Happy New Year! 2012 brings the promise of improving global economies. Balancing short term resilience with longer term needs is what is needed now. Reducing costs, buying less, increasing productivity, improving cash flow is important, and to keep these inventory objectives balanced and in perspective you need an efficient way to optimize these important business demands. Improve your competitive advantages responsibly and efficiently with inventory planning optimization solutions. Waiting until its too late in your ordering cycles will invite your customers to investigate other opportunities, and that can happen by making the reduction of the wrong item at the wrong time.
If your company tends to reduce items with the highest investment because it creates a larger reduction faster, what it actually does is creates potential stock outs, higher backorders and increased expedited shipping – and, even more importantly, customer dis-satisfaction. We all know that when customers are unhappy they become former customers. Randomly cutting inventory has been proven time and time again to be the wrong strategy as does overstocking your inventory.
Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, cloud, inventory optimization, SaaS, Forecasting Inventory, advanced inventory planning solutions, replenishment planning, IBM, Wholesale Distribution, Supply Chain, manufacturing
Tags: inventory optimization, IBM, Green IT, Valogix
What's getting in the way of providing customer value in wholesale distribution? Most often, it's the inability to balance stock levels with service levels. Hold onto too much inventory, and you end up paying for items that collect dust in the warehouse. Stock too little inventory and you won't be able to keep up with customer requests. Sometimes wholesale distributors end up with both problems: holding excess stock of items customers don't need.
Tags: Inventory Planning, Forecasting Inventory, Demand Planning, IBM, Wholesale Distribution, SMB, Valogix
