ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a range of areas linked to the topic of inventory management. It discusses the strategic significance of managing inventory for manufacturing and service settings. The chapter looks into why tactical 'solutions' do not work. It describes how material requirements planning, manufacturing resource planning, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and just-in-time can be successful only if they are expertly managed both internally with outstanding operations in place as well as externally within networks. In fact, just simply reducing stocks will, in the first instance, create major problems. For many large and midsize manufacturers, the challenge of enabling the corporate-wide ERP system to mesh with their lean initiatives on the plant floor requires a delicate balance. Schedulers then use the Durabuilt 360 ERP system to create and adjust the production schedule, fine-tuning it daily, taking into account the capacity of each manufacturing line and the various orders, their complexity and their time sensitivities.
