Operations and Supply Chain Management, 8th Edition

CHAPTER   13

Inventory Management

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

• Explain why companies keep inventory and how advances in IT have impacted inventory decisions.
• Discuss the key elements and costs of inventory and the relationship between inventory costs and customer service.
• Contrast continuous and periodic inventory systems, and classify inventory according to the ABC system.
• Utilize basic inventory models to calculate order quantity and related measures, as well as the annual cost of inventory.
• Determine the appropriate reorder point in a continuous inventory system based on a target service level.
• Calculate the order quantity for a periodic inventory system.

USING RFID TECHNOLOGY FOR DENIM JEANS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags attached to consumer goods like denim jeans that can be scanned from a distance have been used to track inventory (specifically shipping pallets) moving through a company's supply chain. Walmart has been a leading proponent of the use of RFID technology to track inventory, and thus improve and enhance the efficiency of its global supply chain. More recently, RFID technology is moving into retail stores to improve inventory control at the store level. Walmart is using RFID tags in stores ...