Sustainable Inventory

Management in Supply Chains

How Inventory Management Can Make Your Business Greener

Sustainability in the supply chain refers to the effects that your products have on people and the environment as they move from raw materials to completed goods and into consumers’ hands.  Smart Software helps customers to minimize environmental harm from everything involved in your supply chain: energy consumption, water, waste, transportation, and carbon footprint. By leveraging Smart Software, you remove unnecessary inventory,  minimize the amount of space needed for inventory and reduce operating costs. Think about the fact that half the sustainability battle is won with inventory optimization and demand forecasting. Inventory optimization reduces excess due to spoilage and obsolescence and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by saving storage, transportation, and time resources.  One of the best ways to enhance sustainability in your operations is not to create unnecessary items in the first place.

 

Meet Customer Demand Software

Meet Customer Demand

Accounting for inherent demand patterns such as trend and seasonality as well as external and internal feedback on events/promotions minimizes unexpected sales orders that would otherwise be backordered or lost. A service parts distributor increased perfect order fill rate from 92.5% to 95%.

 

 

Logo Increase Revenue Demand Software

Increase Revenue

Optimizing Inventory Levels means savings realized on one subset of items can be reallocated in order to carry a broader portfolio of “in stock” items allowing revenues to be captured that would otherwise be lost sales. A leading distributor was able to stock a broader portfolio of parts with savings used from inventory reductions and increased part availability by 18%

Logo Reduce Inventory Costs Software

Reduce Inventory Costs

Less critical Items that are forecasted to achieve 99%+ services levels represent opportunities to reduce inventory. By targeting lower service levels on less critical items, inventory will “right size” over time to the new equilibrium decreasing holding costs and value of inventory on hand. A major public transit system reduced inventory by more than $4,000,000 while improving service levels.

 

Logo Improve Planner Productivity Software

Improve Planner Productivity

By strategically planning the inventory parameters, planners will spend less time managing outputs from their ERP and have more time to focus on value add activities. Considerable time will also be saved by reducing the number of emergency out of stock events that drain resources. A repair service operation reduced the number of emergency shipments on spare parts by 17% in the first year following implementation.

Logo Reduce Product Costs Software

Reduce Product Costs

Forecasting provides a stronger foundation on which to negotiate with vendors. By using statistical forecasts and estimates of best and worst case demand scenarios, expectations between supplier and customer can be established. After collaborating with a major contract manufacturer using the demand forecast as a guide, An aviation equipment contractor reduced material costs on a major product line by $187,000​

Logo Organizational Consensus Software

Organizational Consensus

When you are able to model and communicate expected demand and likely ranges along with the precise tradeoffs between service levels and inventory cost in your strategic inventory plans, you will establish consensus among all the stakeholders. Once true consensus is established, the organization knows where risks are likely, where they are not, and can plan accordingly.

Ipad with business data of improved Demand & Inventory Planning 2

The impact of improved Demand & Inventory Planning

The modern marketplace is volatile and always changing. SKU proliferation is on the rise, supply chains have gotten longer, lead times less predictable, and demand patterns more intermittent and less forecastable. Yet most organizations have continued to rely on spreadsheets or ERP provided solutions that fall well short of meeting the business needs of the modern supply chain.

Data is often siloed limiting visibility across the organization, formal approaches for forecasting and establishing inventory policy rely primarily on rule of thumb logic or are non-existent. The end result is too much inventory, unhappy customers, and a company unable to respond to uncertainty. Investments aimed at improving demand forecast accuracy, demand planning processes, and optimizing inventory will yield significant economic benefits.

Smart IP&O, a modular platform for Inventory Planning & Optimization

1 SmartForecasts Tile 1
1 Demand Planner Tile 1
1 Smart Inventory Optimization Tile
1 Smart Supply Planner Inventory Management
1 Smart Operational Analytics
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