Inventory Planning and Control

• This course is suitable for procurement; warehouse and supply chain practitioners, commercial management and inventory managers, who are looking to obtain leading edge inventory efficiencies and competitive edge for both themselves and their organisation.

Course objectives

• To appreciate the impact of inventory upon the profitability of the organisation
• To effectively record, manage and measure inventory costs
• To apply category management thinking
• To understand and apply: MRP, JIT, Kaizen, Kanban strategies
• To harness data to: manage and influence demand curves, plan effective resource utilization and reduce cost
• To establish effective inventory management controls
• To implement and report on KPI performance
• To appreciate the importance of audit trails and transparency
• To apply risk management techniques to inventory management
• To take away specific action plans to further develop their role and organisational benefit

Course content

Overview of the inventory management function

• The role and impact of inventory management within the organisation
• Key objectives and responsibilities of Inventory management specialists
• The “inventory management compass” – ensuring SMART objectives – historic, current state, future state
• Combining effective inventory management with excellent customer service – both internal and external
• Global best practice – including category management methodology

Inventory classification and audit

• Effectively classifying inventory – strategic v tactical, rotation speed
• Aligning inventory classifications with organisational and stakeholder needs
• Ensuring accurate records of inventory
• The Inventory management roadmap – full end to end process map
• Establishing effective audit trails and processes

Effective forecasting and peak demand planning

• Effectively forecasting demand – utilizing supply chain data mining and category management approaches
• Peak demand planning – seasonalisation, moving average, exponential smoothing
• Influencing and controlling demand to maximize operational and financial resource efficiency
• Establishing process controls – including: min max, minimum order quantity, safety/buffer stock control
• Effective value judgement – cost benefit analysis of volume discount v internal cost/operational impact

Inventory cost reduction techniques

• Establishing strategic inventory cost reduction – step targeting + continuous improvement
• Implementing leading edge strategies – MRP, JIT, Kaizen, and Kanban
• Obsolete and surplus stock management – establishing data driven business cases
• Establishing key cost reduction enablers within the supply chain – pack sizing, identification criteria, process cost reduction
• Effectively managing inventory risk

Performance management

• Establishing key performance metrics – Operational, Financial, Compliance, and Environmental
• Effective KPI reporting
• Engaging staff colleagues in progress reporting – including cascading, visuals, team motivation
• The effective inventory specialist
• Delegate action planning – participants will create specific departmental and individual action plans to implement the learning outcomes from the course