SUPPLY CHAIN MASTERCLASS 6 INVENTORY OPTIMIZATION – Tool for Supply Chain Excellence A 5 DAY MBA

SUPPLY CHAIN MASTERCLASS 6

INVENTORY OPTIMIZATION –
Tool for Supply Chain Excellence
A 5 DAY MBA

 This programme is aimed at those with a medium or higher level of inventory experience, these roles might include:
? Inventory Managers
? Inventory Controllers
? Purchasing Procurement Managers
? Buyers
? Managing Directors of Smaller Companies who want an understanding of inventory
? Warehouse Managers
? Logistic Managers
? Supply Chain Managers

BACKGROUND
Inventory has been and continues to be the lifeblood of supply chains. Properly managed, it drives revenue and efficiency for companies. But as the nature of supply chains changes, so must the policies used to manage inventory. Traditional inventory management practices are being made obsolete by increasing global supply chains and contract manufacturing, more dynamic product life cycles, and multi-channel distribution.

Companies that want to remain competitive need to view inventory optimization as a business discipline with inherent best practices, not a technology or a onetime point analysis. While there are many best practices surrounding supply chain inventory excellence, a core set is coalescing out of the maturing discipline of inventory optimization. Inventory optimization is driven by a set of values which are typically service level and inventory investment, while optimizing inventory levels across the value chain and consistently meeting customer demand and service levels is the crux of the matter.

Supply chain executives worldwide face an ongoing imperative: improve customer service levels. They also face an ongoing risk: don’t create excess or obsolete inventory at the same time. It’s a double-edged sword for supply chain performance. Because of variability in demand and supply, increasing customer service levels can lead to higher levels of safety stock. Improving cash flow by indiscriminately reducing working capital can result in slashing the wrong inventory, resulting in lower customer service levels.

Inventory Optimization has matured into a cross-functional portfolio of best practices providing tools enabling the supply chain team to quantify the baseline sources of the entire inventory investment. For the first time, all supply chain stakeholders can obtain exact numbers on how much inventory is being held in different locations for reasons such as demand uncertainty, supply variability, batching, lead times, review periods, seasonality, and others. Every inventory related action taken by anyone in the organization is an investment decision that impacts both the working capital on the balance sheet and the top line on the income statement.”

Upon completion of this course, participants will understand:

? How inventory optimization fits within a broader supply chain strategy
? Key business issues addressed with inventory optimization
? Types of inventory and their key drivers
? Types of demand and their impact on inventory strategy
? A methodology for applying inventory optimization in their organization
? Best practices and case studies

These would enable them to:

? Free working capital trapped in excess inventory
? Meet required service levels during business cycle upswings without creating excess inventory
? determine the true cost required to increase service levels Improve inventory turns (which increases competitiveness, noticed by analysts)
? Reduce costly obsolescence, stock-outs, and expediting
? Handle changing demand without creating unnecessarily large inventory buffers
? Anticipate time-phased demand changes caused by seasonality and business cycles
? Create more confident inventory decisions based on facts rather than opinions
? Develop more successful S&OP processes with parties mutually agreeing on best practices
? Extend smart inventory policies to stock held at customer locations and/or supplier DCs