|
TOMAS - EFFICIENT
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
|
Inventory management is important because:
-
The purpose of inventory
is to amortize discontinuities of demand for
materials, products, tools, spare parts etc. i.e. to provide for uninterupted
flow of bussines processes. Therefore, the bigger inventories, the better
for stability of bussines processes.
-
Inventory consume
working capital. Therefore, the lower inventory, the better.
Hence, there are two conflicting requirements.
Optimal inventory management policy is the one that makes compromise to
satisfy both requirements, with the least total costs, consisting out of:
-
costs of having inventory (capital, space,
handling, deterioration etc)
-
costs of not having inventory, when needed
(interupted production, late deliveries, loss of goodwill etc)
-
ordering costs (procedures, transport, incoming
control, setup times in production etc.).
TOMAS offers various possibilities:
-
to find the most adequate inventory management
policies
-
to support these policies in a daily work
-
to analyze inventory transactions and state,
i.e. to pinpoint problem areas.
Follows the short description of what TOMAS
offers in this area.
DEFINING INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
POLICIES
Planning of sales,
production, maintenance and purchasing -
enables finding dynamics of inventory requirements.
Inventory policy
simulations - various hypothetical
ordering policies could be simulated and choosen the most adequte one.
This is done by so called Monte Carlo stochastic simulation method. The
user gives the data on expected demand quantities, ordering costs and delays
and TOMAS delivers data on the structure of costs for simulated policy.
Automatic determination
of ordering policies, based on actual consumption in previous
period and estimation of delivery time for ordered items.
DAILY OPERATIONS
Automatic ordering-
check of each item of inventories is done daily and, where necessary, TOMAS
generates purchasing order or work order, for appropriate quantity.
Inventory item
display on the screen:
-
quantity on hand, total in all warehouses
-
total undelivered quantity to buyers
or from vendors
-
quantity in unfinished production.
These data are displayed each time one enters
purchasing or sales order or production work order or just checks inventory
status, i.e. each time when ordering action might be initiated.
Analysis of inventory
transactions and state:
-
Summary of inventory transactions values
and state, by warehuse - 1 page or only few lines display state of
complete inventories.
-
ABC inventory value analysis, by product
- usualy 5 % of items carry up to 90 % of total stock value.
-
ABC inventory transactions value analysis
- indicates what materials or class of materials, what partners or class
of partners, have biggiest part in sales, purchasing, or production.
-
Material transactions analysis by characteristics
of products or partners - detailed or summary report, for fully or
partialy (generic) defined characteristics.
-
Comparison of quantities and values by
period for sales, purchasing, or consumption, by material, class of
material, partner, class of partner etc.
-
List of inventory items for which:
-
turnaround coefficient
and/or
-
value on hand
and/or
-
value of input
and/or
-
value of output
and/or
-
last input date
and/or
-
last output date
is bigger or smaller then user specified
value.
For example, list of inventories with:
turnround coeff. < 6
and with no output in last 30 days.
-
Inventory status of "critical items",
i.e. below minimum or above maximum.
-
Graphic display of inventory transactions
value flow in time, by warehouse and for the organization as a whole.
These options enable
the user of TOMAS:
-
to find most adequate ordering policies
-
automatic ordering, in accordance with
these policies
-
prompt and permanent insight into inventory
transactions and state, pinpointing problem areas
-
alltogether, full control of material flows
and very efficient inventory management.