Inventory Cost | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Effective inventory management requires measures like average aggregate inventory and inventory turnover, as well as systems like economic order quantity, just-in-time, and materials requirement planning.

Key Insights

• ❓ Effective inventory management requires measures like average aggregate inventory, weeks of supply, and inventory turnover.
• 🥹 Companies need to balance the risk of stockouts with the costs of holding excess inventory.
• 🥹 Inventory management incurs setup, holding, stockout, and ordering costs.
• 🪈 Economic order quantity (EOQ) helps determine optimal order quantity and frequency for independent demand systems.
• ⌛ Just-in-time (JIT) and materials requirement planning (MRP) are dependent demand systems that aim to minimize inventory and optimize production.

Transcript

let's take a look at inventory management as you'll learn next uncontrolled inventory can lead to huge costs for manufacturing operations consequently managers need good measures of inventory to prevent inventory costs from becoming too large three basic measures of inventory are average aggregate inventory weeks of supply an inventory turnover com... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the three basic measures of inventory?

The three basic measures of inventory are average aggregate inventory, weeks of supply, and inventory turnover. Average aggregate inventory is the average overall inventory during a specific period, weeks of supply represent the number of weeks a company's inventory can last, and inventory turnover measures how often a company sells or turns over its average inventory in a year.

Q: What are the costs involved in inventory management?

Inventory management incurs four types of costs. Setup cost refers to the expenses of adjusting machines to produce different inventory. Holding cost, also known as carrying or storage cost, is the cost of keeping inventory until it is used or sold. Stockout cost is the cost of running out of inventory and potentially angering customers. Finally, ordering cost is the expense of placing orders for inventory.

Q: What is economic order quantity (EOQ) and when should it be used?

Economic order quantity (EOQ) is a system of formulas used to determine the optimal quantity and frequency of inventory orders. EOQ considers the overall demand for a product (D) while minimizing ordering costs (O) and holding costs (H). It is useful for independent demand systems, where the level of one inventory does not depend on another.

Q: How do just-in-time (JIT) and materials requirement planning (MRP) inventory systems work?

Just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems ensure that component parts arrive only when needed at each production stage. This minimizes the inventory held by the manufacturer, reducing associated costs. Materials requirement planning (MRP) is a system that determines the precise production schedule, batch sizes, and inventory needed for final products. Both JIT and MRP are dependent demand systems.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Inventory management is crucial to prevent stockouts and minimize costs.

• There are three basic measures of inventory: average aggregate inventory, weeks of supply, and inventory turnover.

• Companies incur four types of costs in inventory management: setup, holding, stockout, and ordering costs.