Every company is trying to reduce or eliminate inventory these days. Most of the advice given on this subject is repetitive. Here are a few inventory reducing techniques you may not have heard of, to get you thinking about alternatives. A common theme is to take measures that are specific to your industry, company and product.
Identifying best practices for company types and cultures is key, according to Lisa Anderson, principal of LMA Consulting Group in Claremont, California. “Collaboration with customers and suppliers is typically a best practice that can help reduce inventory levels,” she says, “but there are different approaches to implementation which can produce vastly different results.”
Sometimes inventory problems are people problems, she adds. Putting the right people in the right jobs can sometimes work magic.
“In one aerospace distributor,” Anderson relates, “we reduced inventory on the top product line by over 30 percent rapidly by finding the already-existing talent within the organization, putting them into an inventory-specific position, providing a few tools, and empowering them for success.”
Published in Global Trade Magazine on Dec. 14th, 2015