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Five_Days_to_Better_Inventory_Management
| Five Days to Better Inventory Management
The litany of headaches related to the implementation and
on-going care-and-feeding of enterprise-based inventory
management applications (upgrading, downtime, maintenance,
hardware obsolescence, and so on) is long. These implementation
issues are enough make the savviest of companies want to engage
in anything but another supply chain or inventory management software
implementation.
For this reason, your organization should consider adopting a hosted inventory management
solution.
Because such solutions are web-based, adopting them is as easy
as selecting the processes you want to use or share, determining
the roles of your users, and, using templates, loading the data.
The biggest hurdle is usually getting the correct data if it has
not been collected before. You determine the processes you want
to map and the vendor guides you through the rest of the
process.
The primary reason such solutions can be implemented so quickly
is that they are based upon an "on demand" or ASP (application
service provider) model. This means there is no software or
hardware to implement. This costly time consuming activity has
already been done by the vendor. As you pay only for the users,
this saves you a lot time and dollars. You determine the process
flows (what steps you want to use), import data into the
templates, upload the information into the application, and go.
It really can be that easy!
Naturally you also want to get your customers on-line. Most
vendors will provide you with training, and also train your
customers, and their customers. The more people (customers and
suppliers) using your network and extended network the greater
the returns you and your customers will experience.
Here’s your five-day roadmap for getting better at managing your inventory:
Day 1: Due diligence •Contact vendor to arrange detailed system
review •Internal review of high level program goals and system
fit •Communication program goals with customers or suppliers
•Follow-up questions regarding system
Day 2: Go/ no go decision •Go - Decide to go forward with
project •No go - Schedule a future review of project
Day 3: Planning •Review current as is processes •Determine/
articulate VMI goals •Reduce inventory, provide inventory
information to suppliers/customers, etc. •Based upon the goals
determine the appropriate VMI approach(es):
Vendor Managed, Consignment, Third Party •Articulate the terms
of the program (who owns the inventory payment terms, penalties,
inventory levels, etc.) •Select a vendor/customer and their
products for a pilot •Map out flow of data, material, and
financial information
Day 4: Setup and pilot •Populate the application’s provided
tables •Setup users and their roles •Setup process flows •Setup
integration at appropriate level and points •Provide training
for the various roles •Load the application’s required
information •Validate the pilot •Measure if the program goals
were met
Day 5: Rollout •Adjust program if required •Add additional
vendors/suppliers •Rollout additional users
About the author:
Town is VP of Research and Technology for Invendia, a leading provider
of vendor managed inventory and web-based inventory solutions.
He can be reached at kentown1@invendia.com or
http://www.invendia.com.
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