Inventory Control (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, 26)

Critical to most organizations in any sector of the economy is the control of material flow from suppliers to customers. The strategic importance of this area, often referred to as Supply Chain Management, is today fully recognized by top management as well as academia. The total investment in inventories is enormous, and the control of capital tied up in raw material, work-in-progress, and finished goods offers, in general, a huge potential for improvement. Scientific methods for production and inventory control can give a significant competitive advantage. Inventory Control deals with different approaches and models that can be used when developing inventory management systems and practices. Today, most companies can realize large savings through improved production and inventory management and one purpose of this book is to describe and explain scientific techniques and hence support and simplify implementation in practice. Another purpose is that the book should be useful as a textbook in various university Courses. Inventory Control satisfies both of these purposes because it covers the very recent advances in inventory theory. For example, new techniques for multi-echelon inventory systems and Roundy's 98 percent approximation are covered, as well as more traditional approaches for forecasting, lot sizing, and determination of safety stocks and reorder points. Other important topics covered are coordinated replenishments of different items and multi-stage ordering systems which include reorder point policies, KANBAN policies and Material Requirements Planning. A thorough understanding of such models and approaches is a prerequisite to successfully applying modern inventory control techniques. The book concludes with a chapter on various practical issues in connection with industrial implementation.

The strategic importance of efficient Supply Chain Management is today fully recognized by top management. The total investment in inventories is enormous, and the control of capital tied up in raw material, work-in-progress, and finished goods offers an important potential for improvement. At the same time, advances in information technology have drastically changed the possibilities to apply improved inventory control techniques. Furthermore, the recent progress in research has resulted in new and more general methods that can reduce the supply chain costs substantially. Scientific methods for production and inventory control can give a significant competitive advantage. INVENTORY CONTROL deals with a range of different approaches and models that can be used when developing inventory management systems and practices.

The book's primary purpose is to serve as a core textbook in various university courses. In addition, it serves as a source book to industry practitioners to understand inventory control techniques and thereby simplify and promote implementation in practice. The second edition of INVENTORY CONTROL, which has been extended by more than 50 percent, satisfies both these objectives. It covers traditional approaches for forecasting, lot sizing, determination of safety stocks and reorder points, KANBAN policies, and Material Requirements Planning. But it also includes very recent advances in inventory theory, for example, new techniques for multi-echelon inventory systems and Roundy's 98 percent approximation. The book also considers methods for coordinated replenishments of different items, and various practical issues in connection with industrial implementation.

The second edition of INVENTORY CONTROL incorporates several new topics. The additions include: alternative forecasting techniques, more material on different stochastic demand processes and how they can be fitted to empirical data, generalized treatment of single-echelon periodic review systems, capacity constrained lot sizing, short sections on lateral trans-shipments and on remanufacturing, coordination and contracts. There are eleven chapters compared to six in the previous version. The explanations of different results are more detailed, and a considerable number of exercises have been added.