Intermittent Demand Forecasting Blog
Forecast intermittent product demand and determine the optimal inventory level
Excess Inventory Hurts Customer Service!
Many companies adopt a “customer first, better to have the inventory and not need it” approach to inventory planning. While well intentioned, this approach often ignores the role that diminishing returns and opportunity costs play in inventory management impacting the organizations ability to quickly respond to demand.
Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items
In a previous post, I discussed one of the thornier problems demand planners sometimes face: working with product demand data characterized by what statisticians call skewness—a situation that can necessitate costly inventory investments. This sort of problematic data is found in several different scenarios. In at least one, the combination of intermittent demand and very effective sales promotions, the problem lends itself to an effective solution.
The Scourge of Skewness
Demand planners have to cope with multiple problems to get their job done. One is the Irritation of Intermittency. The “now you see it, now you don’t” character of intermittent demand, with its heavy mix of zero values, forces the use of advanced statistical methods, such as Smart Software’s patented Markov Bootstrap algorithm. But even within the dark realm of intermittent demand, there are degrees of difficulty: planners must further cope with the potentially costly Scourge of Skewness.
6 Essential Steps to Better Recovery Planning
As we approach the midpoint in 2013, there is still a lot of economic uncertainty complicating your supply chain planning processes. Some look at this shaky economy and postpone needed investments that can position their organizations for a strong future.
Recent Posts
Smart Software to Present at P21WWUG CONNECT 2020Smart Software today announced that Dr. Thomas Willemain, co–Founder and SVP Research, will present the Video Session "Top Inventory Policies Explained" at P21WWUG CONNECT 2020 from August 14 - September 11 , 2020. . […]
Six Steps Up the Learning Curve for New PlannersIf you are a new professional in the field of inventory management, you face a very steep learning curve. There are many moving parts in the system you manage, and much of the movement is random. You may find it helpful to take a step back from the day-to-day flow to think about what it takes to be successful. Here are six suggestions that you may find useful; they are distilled from working over thirty five years with some very smart practitioners. […]