The most thorough introduction available regarding inventory management—now thoroughly updated and expanded—Essentials of Inventory Management gives you the answers you need to every question you’ll ever have about core inventory concepts, from a financial, physical, forecasting, and operational standpoint. Whether you’re a seasoned inventory control professional, new to stockroom/ warehouse management, or a small business owner who needs to keep on top of everything, this essential guide provides you with timeless stock-keeping fundamentals for optimizing efficiency and driving profits.
Perfect for both instructional and on-the-job use, this nontechnical yet thorough guide helps you understand business realities and to make decisions that balance current demand with future needs while keeping overhead and operating costs to a minimum. Focusing on daily-use inventory concepts and enabling you to analyze and fix dysfunctions when they occur, the book provides the tools and practical guidance you need to:
• Forecast inventory levels and undertake stock replenishment so you have the right items, in the right quantities, at the right time, and in the right place.
• Apply simple formulas to compute breakeven points, profit margins, markups and markdowns, as well as selling price and margin percentages.
• Use financial ratios to improve the operation of your business.
• Manage inventory as both a physical and database object.
• Set up effective stock locator systems.
• Implement efficient item placement theories.
• Consider the differences between finished-goods (retail) inventories and raw materials or work-in-process (manufacturing) inventories.
• Decide when to dispose of dead stock.
• Choose the right cycle counting method for your organization and use it to head off long-range problems.
• Understand materials requirements planning (MRP) and just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems.
• Guard against supply chain risks.
From physical stock issues to problem identification and resolution to technologies like RFID and other automated inventory mechanisms, the second edition of Essentials of Inventory Management is a no-nonsense, how-to-get-it-done-right guide every inventory manager will turn to again and again.

Essentials of Inventory Management | Max Muller (Author) | AMACOM

Features:
Inventory management involves a lot more than just counting what you’ve got. Now in a thoroughly updated and expanded second edition, Essentials of Inventory Management covers topics such as:
Forecasting and replenishment strategies, Differences between retail and manufacturing inventories, Materials requirements planning and just-in-time inventory systems, Simple formulas for calculating quantities and schedules, Management of inventory as a physical reality and a database object, Supply chain risk management.
Perfect for novice and veteran managers alike, this ultra-practical book provides you with the up-to-date and ready-to-use information you need to maximize productivity in key areas from physical control and layout to problem identification and resolution.
Complete with detailed examples, handy tools, and a revised and expanded chapter analyzing “Why Inventory Systems Fail and How to Fix Them,” the book familiarizes you with hard-core, timeless stock-keeping fundamentals that will allow you to keep your operation running smoothly and efficiently. Addressing all items both in their tangible form (“shelf count”) and intangible forms (“record count” and monetary worth), the book arms you with down-to-earth information on automated inventory identification systems, methods for analyzing and remedying dysfunctions, and the nature and scope of possible conflicts created by reducing “waste” within a supply chain.
Along with detailed explanations of multiple cycle counting methodologies and financial statement insights for the nonfinancial manager, the book provides and explains the basic formulas that will allow you to compute breakeven points, profit margins, markups and markdowns, as well as selling price and margin percentages. You’ll learn how to employ basic problem-solving techniques toward issue resolution, control the physical location of inventory in a more efficient manner, select the cycle counting inventory method that is right for you, and appreciate the fundamental differences between finished goods inventories in the retail/distribution sectors and raw materials and work-in-process inventories found in the manufacturing environment.
Getting past the theory and into the daily, practical techniques and strategies that will enable you to do a better job managing your inventory, Essentials of Inventory Management remains the go-to guide for all inventory management professionals.

Essentials of Inventory Management

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Inventory as Both a Tangible and an Intangible Object
Inventory—Who Needs It?, Tracking the Paper Life, Electronic Data Interchange, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 2 Inventory as Money
Accounting for Inventories, How Inventory Is Valued, Inventory on the Balance Sheet, Inventory on the Income Statement, Ratio Analyses and What They Mean, Profit Margins, Merchandising Metrics, Obsolete Stock, Methods of Disposal, Carrying Cost and Purchasing, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 3 Physical Location and Control of Inventory
Common Locator Systems, Common Item Placement Theories, Location Addresses and SKU Identifiers, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 4 Automatic Identification
The Basics of Bar Coding, Elements of a Bar Code Symbol, Structure of a Generic Bar Code Symbol, Symbologies: Bar Coding Structural Rules, Scanning Basics, Bar Code Applications, The Basics of Radio-Frequency Identification, RFID Tag Types and Classes, Bar Code versus RFID, RFID Item Identification, The Advantages of RFID, The Problems Associated with RFID, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 5 Planning and Replenishment Concepts
Replenishment Costs, Types of Inventory Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 6 Why Inventory Systems Fail and How to Fix Them
Inventory System Failure: A Case Example, Discussion of Example Case, Metrics, Tools with Which to Uncover System Dysfunctions, Cycle Counting, Recap, Review Questions

Chapter 7 Basics of Supply Chain Risk Management
SCM in a Perfect World, Primary Risks in SCM, Suggested Solutions to SCM Problems, Recap, Review Questions
Bibliography