solutions just in time inventory

Just In Time Inventory Programs Seek to Balance Needs

For years manufacturers have struggled with inventory control. Too much or too little inventory. Inventory that is too late or too early. The business implications are substantial. Inventory has a substantial impact on a company's critical cash flow and plays a major role in whether or not a company is able to meet its customer satisfaction requirements. Yet, these issues are at conflict. The more inventory you have, the more you can meet your customer's needs, but the more negatively your financial performance is affected and vice versa.

Many manufacturers have implemented just in time inventory programs to drive inventory reductions while meeting customer service requirements. Just in time inventory means having material or finished goods available just when you need them. For just in time inventory programs to work they require supply chain visibility of product inventory throughout the supply network and information sharing with suppliers on demand, supply and inventory re-order trigger points.

Responding to Change Critical to Effective Inventory Management

While the notion of just in time inventory is intuitively beneficial to most manufacturers, the reality is that most are implementing just in case inventory programs. Most manufacturers today are struggling to deal with the increasing volatility in their businesses. As a result, costly just in case measures often become institutionalized strategies to try to achieve market-driven customer satisfaction requirements. Inventory buffers are frequently the chosen option. Manufacturers end up in this predicament because they lack a flexible inventory system and tools to coordinate all of the changes happening every day across their supply chains in a single inventory management environment.

Kinaxis™ RapidResponse™ monitors all changes in supply, demand and product as they occur. Proactive alerting notifies your staff and suppliers immediately to changes that could negatively impact your business and provides the insights and tools so they can collaborate on cost effective and timely solutions. RapidResponse enables your staff to evaluate lean manufacturing kanban designs, simulate inventory policy changes and proposed safety stock levels and to model constraints to avoid unexpected shortage conditions.