1. Chapter 16 Meeting the Challenges
What does the Future Hold

2. The process for improvement
Communication
Information Sharing
Technical Advancement

3. Evolution of Manufacturing
Gain control over individual stores and manufacturers (through master scheduling & MRP for example)
Include finished warehouse stock to the manufacturing control process (from materials management activity)
Add distribution costs into the cost balance (identify skus)
Form partnerships with suppliers to avoid duplicating their stocks with raw material stockholding
Work on flow through the supply pipeline to eliminate finished warehouse or distributor stocks
Integrate the distributed regional stores into the inventory management system (DDMRP approach)
Integrate SKU records along the supply chain
Co-ordinate supply chain management to minimise supply chain costs (“integrated business planning”)
Continuous development of product flow.

4. Information Structures
Customer Focus
Additive Manufacturing
Understanding Finance
Enterprise Resource Planning ERP
Big Data
Supply chain activities
Single warehouse inventory levels
Forecasting

5. Recipe for success Develop Strategy Focus on Key requirements
Plan Actions
View from customers’ perspective
Be reliable

6. Key Messages Embrace new ideas Apply the techniques from this book
Inventory management is simple in practice if you apply the basic ideas
The problem is that many people do not understand the basic techniques of inventory managemt
Embrace new ideas
Apply the techniques from this book
Use these controls within the supply chain
Communication is key
Develop new technology
Focus on the basic objectives