Logistics, Inventory Control, and Supply Chain Management

Summary
The article I read is about logistics, inventory control, and supply chain management. Many argue that the focus point of successful supply chain management is inventories and inventory control. The article brings up these questions: What factors drive inventory costs? When might it make sense to keep larger inventories? Having too much inventory (which can lead to high costs) versus having too little inventory (which can lead to lost sales). Firms use one of three general approaches to manage inventory. First, most retailers use an inventory control approach, monitoring inventory levels by item. Second, manufacturers are typically more concerned with production scheduling and use flow management to manage inventories. Third, a number of firms (for the most part those processing raw materials or in extractive industries) do not actively manage inventory.

Connection
In chapter 11, we learned about the basic knowledge of inventory. This article tells about how to control the inventory appropriately for the company, and supply chain management. I remember the doughnut question we did last Friday. One of the questions is, what might happen if a company has too many doughnuts per day and has too less doughnuts per day (The question seems like this). So the effect is evident. The company might remain too many doughnuts, so that it would increase some of the expenses. Also the company might lack doughnuts to sell, so that it affects the customer.

Reflection
After I read this article, I noticed that it is very important to control the amount of inventories. As a retail store, inventory determines everything of the store. For example, if there is nothing to sell in superstore, why would we go there? And why people let an empty company such as that “empty superstore” exists? Therefore, inventory must be organized properly, appropriately, and clearly.