Best Practice in Inventory Management

Best Practice in Inventory Management 3E offers a simple, entirely jargon-free and yet comprehensive introduction to key aspects of inventory management. Good management of inventory enables companies to improve their customer service, cash flow and profitability. This text outlines the basic techniques, how and where to apply them, and provides advice to ensure they work to provide the desired effect in practice. With an unrivalled balance between qualitative and quantitative aspects of inventory control, experienced consultant Tony Wild portrays the many ways in which stock management is more nuanced than simple "number crunching" and mathematical modelling. This long-awaited new edition has been substantially and thoroughly updated. The product of decades of experience and expertise in the field, Best Practice in Inventory Management 3E provides students and professionals, even those with no prior experience in the area, an unbiased and honest picture of what it takes to effectively manage stocks in a firm.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1 THE BASIS OF INVENTORY CONTROL 1.A The role of inventory management 1.B Objectives for inventory control 1.C Profit through inventory management 1.D Reasons for the current stock 2 CUSTOMER SERVICE 2.A Customer Relations 2.B Measuring availability 2.C Demand management 2.D Consuming forecast demand and supply lead time 3 SHAPING INVENTORY 3.A Using Pareto Analysis for control 3.B ABC Analysis 3.C Stock cover 3.D Pareto stock balance 4 PRACTICAL METHODS FOR REDUCING STOCKHOLDING 4.A Approach to Inventory Reduction 4.B The Reduction Project 4 C Obsolete and Excess Stock 5 MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL 5.A Where stock control fits into the organisation 5.B Responsibilities and targets 5.C Skills and Systems 5.D Inventory valuation 6 LEAN SUPPLY 6.A Lean Supply Philosophy 6.B Lean Principles 6.C Implementing lean 6.D Operational benefits of Lean Supply 6.E Developing Lean Operations 7 SAFETY STOCKS 7.A Learning from History 7.B Normal demand patterns 7.C Evaluating safety stocks 8 SETTING THE RIGHT STOCK LEVELS 8.A Simple Assessment of Review Levels 8.B Managing Lead Times 8.C Supplier Delivery frequency effects 8.D Target stock levels 9 PROCUREMENT 9.A The Role of Supply Chain Procurement 9.B Supply partnerships 9.C Single Sourcing 9.D Supply Partnerships 9.E Vendor Appraisal 9.F Pricing Methods 10 DELIVERY QUANTITIES 10.A Supply and Suppliers 10.B Organising Repetitive Supply 10.C Order types 10.D Order quantities 10.E Delivery Quantities 10.F Scheduling supply 10.G Supply Co-ordination 10.H Purchasing Processes 11 FORECASTING DEMAND 11.A Options for assessing demand 11.B Causes of forecasting inaccuracy 11.C Methods of improving forecasting 12 HISTORICAL FORECASTING TECHNIQUES 12.A Basic Forecasting Techniques 12.B Moving Average 12.C Exponentially Weighted Averages 12.D Improved Values for Mean Absolute Deviation 12.E Choosing the Best Forecast - Focus Forecasting 13 IMPROVED FORECASTING METHODS 13.A More Forecasting Tools 13.B Forecasting for seasonal sales 14 DEPENDENT DEMAND 14.A Avoiding uncertainty 14.B Material requirements planning 14.C Master planning 15 SUPPLY CHAIN INVENTORY MANAGEMENT 15.A The basis of the lean supply chain 15.B Coordination 15.C Supply Chain Operations 15.D Replenishment Techniques 16 MEETING THE CHALLENGES 16.A Review 16.B Recipe for success QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

About the Author :
Tony Wild, PhD, is Managing Director of Dawson Berkeley & Partners Ltd, UK. Tony is a leading expert on Inventory Management, developing and introducing new ideas in large and small companies in their Supply Chains, He is also lecturing at the University of Warwick. Tony would now like to pass on his secrets of success to generations of students and practitioners, who can use them and take up this exciting and challenging profession .