It’s our Blog-aversary! Our first blog post was written on October 9th, 2013. Did you know to this date we’ve written 220 blogs? To celebrate, today’s post highlights 5 of our top inventory management blog posts.
Top 5 Inventory Blog Posts:
- Understanding the Importance of Change Management
- Supply Chain Management Disasters: Toys “R” Us
- The Benefits of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
- 5 Ways to Effectively Reduce Your Inventory Shortages
- 5 Causes of Obsolete Inventory
Understanding the Importance of Change Management
What is Chain Management?
Chain management is a process that helps organizations make seamless transitions. Essentially, it helps, “employees to understand, commit to, accept and embrace change in their current business environment”.
Why is Chain Management important?
- Eases tension in a changing environment and facilitates a smooth process
- Saves your organization time and resources
- Creates a more adaptable and innovative workplace
What are some examples of Chain Management? Check out this top inventory management blog post to read more.
Supply Chain Disasters: Toys “R” Us
What Went Wrong?
In 1999, Toys “R” Us faced a supply chain nightmare as they were unable to provide toy orders for customers days before Christmas.
They struggled to deal with the high volume of traffic on their website, limiting access to keep servers from crashing. Despite this, orders continued to overwhelm the company. Toys “R” Us promised delivery for orders placed before December 10th but failed to deliver. This resulted in the infamous “we’re sorry” emails that were sent days before Christmas. The emails created a tsunami of negative backlash for the company.
So how did Toys “R” Us rebound? Learn more from this top inventory management blog post.
Benefits of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
What is VMI?
Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is when suppliers manage their customers inventory. Inventory is managed using physical reorder points or data from customers. VMI’s primary goal is to cut down costs and to increase efficiency within the whole inventory management process.
Benefits of VMI for Vendors:
- More control
- Strengthens customer-vendor relationships
- Reduce inventory costs
Benefits of VMI for Customers:
- Reduce inventory overstock and stock shortages
- Increase sales
- Less responsibility
To discover more, go to this top inventory management blog post.
5 Ways to Effectively Reduce Your Inventory Shortages
The seemingly obvious solution is to increase your stock. That is not the way to go! Increasing your stock is an expensive way to manage your inventory. It will not solve your problem long term. Instead, evaluate your company’s processes and pinpoint the broken links within your supply chain.
5 Tips to reduce inventory shortages:
- Eliminate uncertainty
- Consider inventory management
- Rethink your order-to-delivery
- Scheduling your production
- Take advantage of performance metrics
Learn more from this top inventory management blog post!
5 Causes of Obsolete Inventory
Obsolete inventory is stock that can no longer be sold. This is because the inventory has reached the end of its life-cycle. Keeping these products is costly and takes up space in your warehouse. As a result, your company incurs extreme losses.
5 ways to avoid obsolete inventory are:
- Inaccurate forecasting
- Poor product quality or design
- Inadequate inventory management system
- Long lead times
- No management of obsolete inventory
Want to know more? Check out this top inventory management blog post!
