How can I increase efficiency and improve profitability by better managing my inventory?
Timely management of inventory is a critical factor for corporate success. Companies need to have enough inventory on hand to meet key customer demand, but also must closely manage their inventory to avoid tying up excess cash. Successful management of this constantly shifting balance point is critical to making timely deliveries while maximizing the efficiency of scarce capital. This Solution is intended to give operations personnel and their management visibility into inventory movement so that purchasing and inventory levels can be optimized to meet customer and seasonal demand.
Data Analysis
What are your current inventory levels, and how are they changing?
Products are grouped and linked with drill capability, to their corresponding warehouse so that current inventory levels can be viewed and analyzed.
What materials, products, and/or product groups are your suppliers providing?
Materials and/or products will be rolled up into related groupings so that users can look at aggregate metrics for related items and also drill down to the underlying items. Drill down to the underlying data will provide access to inventory details, including inventory transactions.
Where are products being stored?
This quadrant will display inventory locations (plants, warehouses, etc.) so that users can determine where the products are being delivered.
When were these items delivered and/or moved?
In addition to the information described above, users will also be able to decide what time period(s) to review, which will show when specific metrics were achieved (or missed), and how those numbers are changing. The time dimension is available at the top of the Analysis UI, or can be displayed in one of the view quadrants. Generally the most relevant settings will be period (view data for a single period) period over period (to quickly compare performance relative to a prior time) or rolling 12 period analysis, where a period can be a month, quarter, or year (or any other available period). In addition, data from different time periods can be displayed in adjacent columns to compare recent history with comparable periods in the past.
Inventory Evaluation Metrics
This will allow users to select a metric of interest out of the available measures to be displayed in the 3 quadrants listed above. Users will be able to change the metric of interest to drive different types of investigation. Users can investigate how the values of the following measures vary with the dimensions described above:
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- Quantity On Hand
- COGS Value (if available)
- Average Inventory Quantity
- Inventory Turns
- Days on Hand
Time dimension handling
The standard solution includes adjustments for fiscal vs. calendar time (if needed), period-over-period, rolling period, and last 12 period analyses. Standard periods are years, quarters, months, weeks, and days.
Additional information:
If possible, other relevant dimensions and metrics will be defined and added to the Solution during the tuning phase of delivery. However, not all systems or implementations support additional information. Other potentially useful information:
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- Soft and hard commit quantities
- On PO Quantity
- Net transaction quantity
Data Presentation
Performance vs. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Bullet graphs or conditional cell color changes can be configured to highlight performance that either fails to meet or exceeds corporate targets. These goals can be set and modified easily in the Analysis front end so that the business users can set the appropriate goals and also adjust them as needed as performance improves.
Graph Types
iQ4bis Analysis supports the following graph types:
Trend Chart
Bar Chart
Stacked Bar Chart
Column Chart
Stacked Column Chart
Pie Chart
Pareto Chart
Built-in calculation logic
iQ4bis Analysis has the following pre-defined calculation logic available, and also supports user-definable custom expressions if required.
Variance
Variance %
Achievement %
% of Total
Sum, Sum of Column Range
Quotient
Product
Inventory Analysis-Specific Views provided
The standard Inventory Analysis solution includes the following views as starting points for customization.
Inventory Analysis: All Measures
Inventory Trends
Turnover Analysis
Top 25 Products by Turnover
Bottom 25 Products by Turnover
Standard iQ4bis Analysis Templates
In addition to the specific views listed above, the Solution also includes:
One Grid
Two Grids (horizontal)
Two Grids (vertical)
Three Grids (two bottom)
Three Grids (two left)
Three Grids (two right)
Three Grids (two top)
Four Grids
Achievement Bullet Graphs
Charts
Measures Across
Period and Year to Date
Rolling Periods
