Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® Analysis Services 2008 with MDX

Chapter 23. Inventory Scenarios

The goal of understanding your inventory is to keep enough stock in order to meet customer expectations and desired service level agreements (SLAs). Yet at the same time, you want to keep a minimum amount of stock on hand to reduce the overhead costs of keeping that stock or potentially wasting the stock. For example, big box retailers will want to keep winter sports clothing on hand during the winter months for sale to their customers. Yet, they want to keep minimal stock on hand to meet customer demand so when the spring months come, they do not have the overhead of storing winter clothing. This can also include the logistics and tracking of how many burgers a fast food restaurant has available every hour of the day. Because the burgers can go bad after some time period, it is important to know what typical customers demand every hour so you can have enough burgers on hand to meet the needs of your hungry customers yet not waste too many burgers when they expire.

Inventory scenarios involve understanding when to order products and how much to order, forecasting customer demand, and identifying the most effective supply source for your items. A comprehensive review of effective inventory management is beyond the scope of the book. For that, I suggest you review Jon Schreibfeder's Distribution Inventory Management White Paper Series www.microsoft.com/dynamics/industry/wholesale_distribution_whitepapers.mspx). But what is interesting about inventory ...