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The Latest News and Thoughts from the RSI Team
Lessons The Pandemic Taught The Supply Chain
As a planner, you know you need to learn from the past. This is so you can improve future planning and supply chains. One of the most useful things to learn from is customer demand data from previous COVID-19 waves. Does your inventory planning system allow you to use this demand data to run what-if scenarios? If not, you may want to consider another system.
The COVID-19 demand data collected from the initial waves of the virus gives us an opportunity to learn about key drivers of demand for specific product categories in specific location. We can learn where forecasts went wrong and use this information to improve future planning for the next waves of COVID-19 (e.g. Delta Variant). Any learnings can be used in future waves of COVID-19.
The Importance of Replenishment Lead Time Variation in Inventory Planning
Inventory planning is a vital process for companies that want to minimize risk and maximize profit. It can be difficult, however, to create an accurate inventory plan when there are so many variables in the equation. The complexity of inventory planning increases exponentially when replenishment lead time variation is not taken into account. In this blog post, we'll explore why replenishment lead time variation should be included in all inventory plans.
Risk Mitigation with a Dual-Source Supply Base Data Modeling
Many new trends in sourcing include the new term Sure-Shoring. This means a supply chain may have multiple sources close to home and across the world. With all supply chains, there is potential for geo-political instability, natural disasters, or even a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal to affect the day to day.
Reorder Points, Minimum Order Quantities, and Toilet Paper?
One of the challenges in supply chain is often-times we use the same terms to describe different things. “Safety Stock” to one person or company might be a “Reorder Point” to another. Other people might describe a “Minimum Quantity” when what they are really describing is a “Safety Stock”. That is why it’s critically important at Right Sized Inventory (RSI), when we first meet with clients, to clearly define terms and vocabulary.
RSI Announces Newest Team Member Ryker Frandsen, Operations Manager
Ryker Frandsen is our new Operations Manager. He has worked in the biotech, automotive, and building product industries. He has significant experience in buying, planning, master scheduling, and inventory management. Notably, he planned the chemistry for COVID-19 PCR testing on automated workstations when the COVID-19 Pandemic started while at Beckman Coulter. He won the 2020 Sales Choice Award from the sales team based on his communication and delivery performance of this crucial product. He also spent significant time as the inventory management team lead as well as planning hardware and service product lines for the Centrifugation and Particle Characterization products.
Signs Predictive Analytics Aren’t Used to Determine Buffer Inventory
Forgive us for asking this set-up question with an obvious answer – Does your current buffer-inventory calculation include all these factors? No, of course it doesn’t.
We assure you, we appreciate and never underestimate the value of experience and intuition in a supply-chain professional. We have accumulated quite a bit over the decades, and it continues to serve us well. Why are we telling you this?
10 Reasons We Hesitate About Supply-Chain Predictive Analytics
10 Hesitations About Putting Buffer-Inventory Predictive Analytics to Work using supply-chain predictive analytics software.
Is a higher service level ALWAYS the best option for inventory optimization?
A common Key Performance Indicator (KPI) when it comes to inventory optimization is some measure of “availability” of an item when it is needed by the customer. In simple words, service availability means “What percentage of the time was an item available when a customer needed it?”
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Find out if Right Sized Inventory is right for your business and inventory needs. Set up a call with one of our team and we’ll walk you through a demo, identify trouble spots in your business, and see how implementing RSI can transform your business through data-driven inventory optimization.