1. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Chapter Twenty McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Inventory
Inventory can be visualized as stacks of money sitting on forklifts, on shelves, and in trucks and planes while in transit.
For many businesses, inventory is the largest asset on the balance sheet at any given time.
Inventory can be difficult to convert back into cash.
It is a good idea to try to get your inventory down as far as possible.
The average cost of inventory in the United States is 30 to 35 percent of its value.

3. Introduction: A Balancing Act for Management
Both the presence and absence of inventory contribute to value and to costs.
Too much inventory is an investment that will provide no return.
Too little inventory results in missed or late sales and deliveries.
Carrying the correct amount of inventory is a difficult balancing act.

4. Inventory Models Single-period model
Used when we are making a one-time purchase of an item
Single-period model
Used when we want to maintain an item “in-stock,” and when we restock, a certain number of units must be ordered
Fixed-order quantity model
Item is ordered at certain intervals of time
Fixed–time period model

5. Definitions
Inventory: the stock of any item or resource used in an organization
Includes raw materials, finished products, component parts, supplies, and work-in-process
Manufacturing inventory: refers to items that contribute to or become part of a firm’s product
Inventory system: the set of policies and controls that monitor levels of inventory
Determines what levels should be maintained, when stock should be replenished, and how large orders should be

6. Why Should Businesses Carry Inventory?
Decoupling: Reducing the direct dependency of a process step on its predecessor. This could be in a process or in the supply chain.
Decouple customer from supplier and machine from machine
Disruptions, if decoupled, don’t have as serious of an impact
Decoupling enhances reliability and response time

7. Why Should Businesses Carry Inventory?
Decoupling
Meeting Demand
Emergency Situations

8. Why Should Businesses Avoid Carrying Too Much Inventory?
No Financial returns - Inventory is an investment that should provide a financial return; excess inventory is an investment that provides no return.
Associated costs - In addition to the cost of purchasing it, inventory also has other “carrying” costs: Cost of storage, Cost of insurance, Reduction in flexibility

9. Why Should Businesses Avoid Carrying Too Much Inventory?
Reduces management’s ability to make quick decisions (reduces flexibility)
Less adaptability to changing market conditions

10. Purposes of Inventory To maintain independence of operations
To meet variation in product demand
To allow flexibility in production scheduling
To provide a safeguard for variation in raw material delivery time
To take advantage of economic purchase order size

11. Inventory Costs Costs Holding (or carrying) costs
Costs for storage, handling, insurance, and so on
Setup (or production change) costs
Costs for arranging specific equipment setups, and so on
Ordering costs
Costs of placing an order
Shortage costs
Costs of running out

12. Demand Types
Independent demand – the demands for various items are unrelated to each other
For example, a workstation may produce many parts that are unrelated but meet some external demand requirement
Dependent demand – the need for any one item is a direct result of the need for some other item
Usually a higher-level item of which it is part

13. Independent vs. Dependent Demand Inventory
Example:
Independent demand:
Kitchen table – Need 500 tables five weeks from now
Dependent demand:
Kitchen table legs – Need 4 per table or 2,000 legs
Calculation of dependent demand (Chapter 12)

14. Inventory Control Systems
Continuous Review System – An inventory system used to manage independent demand inventory where the inventory level for an item is constantly monitored and when the reorder point is reached, an order is released.
Periodic Review System – An inventory system that is used to manage independent demand inventory where the inventory level for an item is checked at regular intervals and restocked to some predetermined level.

15. ROP Problem
For men’s size XL Trevecca T-shirts at the bookstore, the average weekly demand is 7, with a standard deviation of 3. the replenishment lead time is 1 week. What should the re-order point be to maintain a 99% confidence (z=2.35) of satisfying the demand during the lead time?
ROP = Average Demand (LT)+(z*sd)

16. Continuous Review System
Key features:
Inventory levels are monitored constantly, and a replenishment order is issued only when the reorder point is reached.
The size of a replenishment order is typically based on the trade-off between holding costs and ordering costs.
The reorder point is based on both demand and supply considerations, as well as on how much safety stock managers want to hold.

17. Fixed-Order Quantity Model
Always order Q units when inventory reaches reorder point (R).
Inventory is consumed at a constant rate, with a new order placed when the reorder point (R) is reached once again.
Inventory arrives after lead time (L). Inventory is raised to maximum level (Q).

18. Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)
The optimal order quantity (Qopt) occurs where total costs are at their minimum

19. Quantity Discounts
Quantity Discounts – Price reductions for ordering larger quantities.

20. Quantity Discounts Two-step process:
Calculate the EOQ. If the EOQ represents a quantity that can be purchased for the lowest price, stop – we have found the lowest cost order quantity. Otherwise, go to Step 2.
Compare total holding, ordering, and item costs at the EOQ quantity with total costs at each price break above the EOQ. There is no reason to look at quantities below the EOQ, as these would result in higher holding and ordering costs, as well as higher item costs.