Research Questions on Inventory

The Process is that when received, all items are counted manually and taken to the warehouse - loaded on to special shelves. Information is recorded on the computer. Each department identifies goods needed. A list is made and items taken for display and sale in the shop. Department staff replenish the shelves when needed under close supervision and management in order to supply a high class service to customers.

As focusing on each of the five management assertions for the inventory account, we discovered that there are some risky areas that indicate the need for further attention during the audit. First of all, for existence or occurrence, all items in the inventory account must physically exist and be available for sale. Thus, the auditors should physically count finished goods, copper rod, and plastic inventories, and determine actual increase of inventories at year end. Also, they should select items from the inventory ledger and locate them and reconcile the quantity. Second, for completeness, the auditors should make sure that all existing inventories have been recorded completely , go around the warehouse and ensure all the inventories are recorded in the inventory ledger. Third, for valuation or allocation, the auditors should make sure that Laramie Wire manufacturing sticks with one valuation method(For inventory items, valuation is based on the lower of cost or market value, with several alternative methods for calculating cost), find out if there is any scrap inventory that needs to be recorded and written off ,and ask about obsolescence items. Fourth, for rights and obligations, the auditor should ask them if there is any consigned inventory at their warehouse. If there is, those inventories should not be recorded in the company's inventory ledger. Finally, for presentation and disclosure, the auditors should review the company's financial

Abstract —There are some complex and compelling challenges that global manufacturing industries should face, which includes price fluctuation, supply-chain inefficiencies and increasing customer expectations. In order to meet the demand of this economic environment, manufacturers need to find innovative, smarter ways to face those challenges. Thus, the efficient inventory management becomes urgent to manufacturers and it could help improve profitability and increase customer satisfaction. This paper aims to talk about what inventory management is and its importance, what problems inventory management might have and how to improve inventory management efficiency.

Then, inventory allows minimizing costs, it is speculative stock. For instance by exploiting economies of scale that may exist during both production and distribution. Or, when the supplier provides significant discounts for bulk purchases, storage can be useful too. Delivery costs will be reduced if lot sizes are large.

Inventory segmentation represents a substantial challenge due to the hardy product selection requirements for Internet retailers. Determining the products that must be handle in one 's own distribution centers, versus wholesaler distribution centers and producers places has an impact on cost service structure of Internet retailers (Chiles & Dau, 2005).

In this final paper for Managerial Finance I will attempt to show how the supply chain inventory management method can be affected depending on the situation of the retailer. Studying the control method for problems in inventory, which would include both, excesses in inventory as well as shortages, and hoping to minimize loss.

b.     The items have been reserved for 30 minutes without activity, at that time the reservation entry is removed, and the items are placed back in general inventory.

The purpose of this course project is to address the ongoing issues surrounding my companies, REI (Recreation Equipment Inc.,) inventory management issue and to see if we can find a software program better suited to the companies needs. The goal is to find products quickly and efficiently. Customer satisfaction is key to driving sales and profit in any company. As a result a software upgrade is certainly needed in order to compete with other companies in the same industry.

Office Depot uses multiple inventory strategies to order products. 90% to 95% of goods are ordered through automatic replenishment, manual replenishment, pull replenishment, and global sourcing are also used depending on channel, volume, velocity and cost. (Office Depot, 2015). The accuracy of the inventory from both a DC and store perspective is critical to the organizations success. Heizer and Render (2014) state that record accuracy is a prerequisite to inventory management, production scheduling, and sales. Accuracy is maintained by either periodic or perpetual systems (p.479). In Office Depot, the stores are required to cycle-count technology items such as laptops, desktops computers, and tablets five days a week. Discrepancies are entered in the system and bounced off the local DC’s on-hand inventory discrepancies. Office Depot is a “blind receive” organization meaning the stores receive pallets of products and simply unwrap and put them away. The only way a store knows if a product is missing is through the cycle-count program. This system was put into place to speed up the receiving process and eliminate unnecessary steps once the product was received at the store level. Office Depot conducts a full physical inventory once a year through a third party and trues up the inventory shrink at this time.

As three of America's leading retailers, Home Depot, Nordstrom, and Cold Water Creek, are responsible for over $80 billion in annual sales. Retail industry analysts look for commonalities in inventory management reporting in order to track company's ability to move inventory and maximize pricing strategies and avoid having to discount obsolescent inventory thus affecting profit. Through analysis of a company's inventory management ratio, outside investors and inside management can track the number of times each year a company turns its inventory. Industries such as retail are extremely sensitive to inventory management as many retail products have short shelf lives due to cyclical inventory and technological advances.

Assume HQ is responsible for replenishing inventory at the stores. a) What information is needed and how is it used to decide what to send to each store? b) Where does the information come from? c) Why didn’t we have each store decide what to order from the warehouse?

Commodity items can be effectively discovered from numerous sources and clients trust that it could be conveyed rapidly; if a production network can't be receptive, then the clients will change on to the following source. A conveyance system for retail stockpiling with client pickup acknowledges fast reaction for popularity, low assortment items. Other item items can be effectively appropriated utilizing supplier stockpiling with last-mile conveyance, which is likewise fit for popularity, snappy reaction items

When offers of reduced pricing are accepted for equipment, meeting delivery expectations becomes an important part of enhancing the customer experience to maintain satisfied loyal customers. An inventory specialist in the current distribution center would be given the additional task of segregating and maintaining inventory levels to meet the needs of the customer loyalty department.

Managing what's in a warehouse or on the shop floor can be extremely complex if you're looking for optimal cost and supply chain management capabilities( Needleman, 2017 ). Inventory estimation and control is directly impacted a company’s profitability.

A common way of decreasing the amount of inventory a business holds on a daily basis is implementing a just-in-time inventory process. A Just-In-Time inventory system means that the business gets the materials for a product, as they are demanded. “The electronic data