Inventory Management Best Practices Revealed … All Your Questions Can Be Answered Here!

• How can I convince upper management to give me the capital I need to create an effective cycle counting system and eliminate our physical inventories forever?
• What inventory management system is really the best for our company? Just because we’ve been using the same system for years, is it really the most effective?
• How can I improve our Production Activity Controls (PAC) to ensure our goods flow through the production schedule better?
• What’s the most effective way for me to measure CRP?
• How can I make our processes leaner and more efficient without sacrificing quality?
• What are the best tools out there that measure the performance and quality of my employees? My vendors?
• My inventory control system is a mess. I’m lucky if I have 50 percent record accuracy, so how in the world can I expect to reach levels of 95 percent or more?
• I’m 100 percent certain that my company can afford – and implement – an RFID system, but how can I persuade the bean counters?
• Are there any other inventory control technologies available that may be better suited for my unique workplace challenges?
• My company seems to change its strategic goals every six months and my unit seems to be the one suffering. Any help?
• I’m having difficulties pinpointing why our MRP system can’t adapt to sudden changes as well as I would like it to.
• What tweaks can I make in our JIT system that will improve lagging production schedules?
• Are there inventory management functions that I can safely outsource and free up my staff’s time for other duties?
• Our supply chain processes and procedures are seen as a joke by other departments that don’t feel the need to follow them. Yet, I’m the one who catches the flak if their orders can’t be filled. What can I do to let them know that my rules MUST be followed if our company wants to get to where we want to go?

These are just a few of the most pressing issues facing inventory management professionals that you’ll cover at this unique one-day forum. Be prepared to learn new ideas, reinforce some old ones, share information, and participate in a day that will be as energizing as it is informative!

JIT Techniques to Achieve Business Objectives
Improve the overall quality of your JIT (Just In Time) process, eliminate wasteful holes in your systems, reduce lead times, and discover techniques that will build productive (and profitable) customer and vendor relationships. Learn how others have created, implemented, and maintained the steps for continuous quality improvement and how they’ve integrated and applied these techniques into their business processes.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Benefits vs. Costs
Whether you’ve already begun implementing an ERP system, are thinking about it, or want to make your existing system much more effective, you won’t want to miss this portion of our forum.

Cycle Counting & Physical Inventories
Is 100 percent inventory record accuracy a pipe dream? Not necessarily. The absolute foundation of any successful inventory management plan begins with knowing exactly what you have on hand at a moment’s notice. Learn how companies around the world are eliminating the trials and tribulations of annual physical inventories by implementing amazingly accurate cycle counting systems.

Capacity Requirement Planning
Learn how to define, calculate, and analyze your capacity, capacity planning and levels, plus backward and forward scheduling concepts, during this session. Learn how to accurately gather and analyze your data to foresee potential problems before they blindside you down the road.

Dealing With Other Departments in Your Organization
We could have come up with some important-sounding header for this section, such as “Creating Synchronous Interdepartmental Symbiosis on a Corporate Level,” but really, you just need to know how to get other departments in your organization that don’t know (or care) about your problems to honor and obey your inventory processes and procedures. A somewhat lighthearted look at being a dedicated inventory professional in a world that sometimes just doesn’t get it.

Overcoming Supplier and Vendor Challenges
Create more profitable partnerships with all your vendors and suppliers. Gain the analytical tools you need to determine if your vendors are truly giving you what you need to maintain airtight inventory control. Plus, learn how to evaluate delivery, quality, price, and service, and what to do if your vendors are falling short in any area. Plus, gain tips on working with “difficult” vendors who act like you’re the enemy and not a customer.

Integrating Your Entire Supply Chain
Discuss how inventory management is only the tip of the iceberg in the supply chain process. Build stronger lines of communication between inventory control, purchasing and procurement, logistics and transportation, order fulfillment and more. Because no one knows better than you that your supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Special Section: RFID – Fact or Fiction?
For years, inventory management professionals have heard about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its role as the savior of inventory control. To listen to some people talk, RFID will eliminate every inventory problem you’ll ever have. But is it fact – or marketing hype?

“Filled with very useful information I can use immediately, excellent common sense approaches with ‘real life’ examples.”
Trish Kern
Distribution Manager

“The seminar provided new ideas and techniques to identify and solve problems.”
Gary Rokos
Parts Manager

"Sparked ideas in things to change and implement at work. The instructor kept it interesting with his humor and fast pace."
Greg Reynolds
Inventory Control

"Provided a great deal of insight on the overall inventory process. Very beneficial to improving the tedious task of inventory."
Amanda Davidson
Inventory Control Specialist

“Very valuable information presented in a way that it relates to the work environment.”
Michael Reis
Warehouse Supervisor