What's So Bad About Inventory?
This Article First Appeared in Progressive Grocer, June 2008
17 Jun 2008
We in the retail industry must re-examine the role of inventory in our extended supply chain, perhaps in ways that are contrary to our original beliefs.
An example may be helpful. Consider the value of only one fewer delivery per week to a store. At $4 and six miles per gallon, you can save $133 per trip based on a 200-mile round trip, and that's not including the costs for the driver and other factors. Clearly, the longer the trip is, the greater the benefits of avoiding the trip.
Further, shouldn't we begin to look at inventory as something that should be at the store and ready to meet the needs of retail customers when they make their less frequent but larger sale shopping trips? This will still require end-to-end supply chain collaboration, enabled by technology – technology that can help you cut costs and become greener.
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