ABSTRACT
The global economy is increasingly volatile. Demand patterns fluctuate widely as a reflection of changing customer tastes and preferences along with changes in global economic conditions. In this volatile environment, the challenge facing managers is to integrate their multiple, and often segregated, demand channels into a single repository of demand information. Managers can develop a coherent approach to fulfilling the integrated demand, initially through looking across their inventory positions throughout all levels of the supply chain in real time, i.e., virtualized multi-echelon inventory. Next, relying on sophisticated demand analytics, they establish a set of business rules for accessing available inventory. Managers replenish their inventory pool with automated processes (relying more and more on radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology) and through sophisticated, business intelligence-informed processes.
