Operations Management- Inventory management

Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD Operations management focuses on carefully managing the processes to produce and distribute products and services. Major, overall activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. (These activities are also associated with Product and Service Management.) Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations of processes. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, operations management often includes substantial measurement and analysis of internal processes. Ultimately, the nature of how operations management is carried out in an organization depends very much on the nature of the products or services in the organization, for example, on retail, manufacturing or wholesale. Quality Management Sections of This Topic Include • Basics and Overviews About Quality Management includes many links about basics and overviews of quality management. • Benchmarking is the use of standard measurements in a service or industry for comparison to other organizations in order to gain perspective on organizational performance. • Continuous Improvement, in regard to organizational quality and performance, focuses on improving customer satisfaction through continuous and incremental improvements to processes, including by removing unnecessary activities and variations. • Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is an approach that helps identify and prioritize potential equipment and process failures. • ISO9000 is an internationally recognized standard of quality, and includes guidelines to accomplish the ISO9000 quality standard. Organizations can be optionally audited to earn ISO9000 certification. • Lean Management is a process of maximizing customer value while reducing waste. Any activity or process that consumes resources, adds cost or time without creating value becomes the target for elimination. • Total Quality Improvement (TQM) is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. • Six Sigma is a quality management initiative that takes a very data-driven, methodological approach to eliminating defects with the aim to reach six standard deviations from the desired target of quality. Six standard deviations means 3.4 defects per million. Fishbowl Inventory Blog Exciting news about Fishbowl and QuickBooks inventory management Skip to content  Learn More  Free Trial Finding the Best Inventory Management Solution – Part 1 In my blog post “The Quest for the Perfect Inventory Management Software” I was hunting for the best solution to my inventory management needs. Now I’ll finish my search and talk about how to find the right solution, not just look for it. There are two main criteria you should look at to find the best inventory management software: 1. what it does for you, and 2. what features you expect from it. I’ll discuss the first criterion in this blog post and then the second in another post. A great way to tell if inventory management software is right for you is if it produces the results you’re looking for. What are you looking for? Let’s talk about several things that should be high on your list. Inventory Management Software Results Cut costs: You should expect to save more money than you spend on inventory management software. Some software providers offer an ROI tool to help you find your breakeven point when your savings start exceeding your investment in the inventory software. You might be surprised how quickly it can pay for itself. Increase efficiency: One of the main purposes of using inventory management software is to save time and make your company more efficient. With the right inventory software, you should see a decrease in the amount of time it takes to place orders, receive products, and pick, pack and ship products to customers. Boost employee productivity: Inventory management software should be easy enough to learn that multiple employees can be trained on how to use it. Then you can start delegating inventory management responsibilities to more than one person. That way, if one of your inventory specialists takes a sick day or leaves the company, you don’t have to scramble to replace him or her. You’ve got several options. Improve data accuracy: Your goal should be to have 100% accurate inventory records. The best way to do that is by using mobile wireless devices and product barcodes. Scanning barcodes is faster and more accurate than typing product information by hand. Make sure the inventory management solution you choose uses mobile barcode scanners so you’re not tied to a desktop computer. You should be able to update your inventory records from anywhere. Optimize inventory levels: Idle inventory does you no good. Neither does an empty shelf. Too much inventory is a waste of money and too little is a missed opportunity. Inventory management software should use as much information as possible to gauge your inventory needs and make sure you have just enough inventory to meet demand. Past performance: The right inventory management software should stand proudly behind its results. Its creators should showcase examples of how it has helped a variety of companies save money and succeed. Pay close attention to software providers’ inventory management case studies and decide whether or not you can benefit in similar ways to the companies you read about.