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• Module overview
• 1. Introduction to logistics
  • 1.1. The logistics concept
    • 1.1.1 A question of definition
    • 1.1.2 Technological context
  • 1.2. Evolution of modern business logistics
    • 1.2.1 Materials management or supply-side logistics
    • 1.2.2 Physical distribution or demand-side logistics
    • 1.2.3 The total logistics concept
  • 1.3 Logistics, the critical interfaces

• 2. Supply side logistics: Procurement and materials management

  • 2.1 Materials management
    • 2.1.1 Purchasing and procurement
    • 2.1.2 Production control
    • 2.1.3 Warehousing and storage
    • 2.1.4 Data and information systems
  • 2.2 Quality in logistics
    • 2.2.1 Total quality management
    • 2.2.2 Benchmarking
  • 2.3 Kanban
  • 2.4 Measurement and evaluation
  • 2.5 MRP 1 and 2

• 3. Demand side logistics: Forecasting and order processing

  • 3.1 Customer order processing
  • 3.2 Environmental scanning
    • 3.2.1 The environments
    • 3.2.2 Approaches to scanning
  • 3.3 Logistics needs forecasting
  • 3.4 Lead time components
  • 3.5 Enhancing forewarning of demand

• 4. Inventory management and control

  • 4.1 Basic concepts and rationale for inventory holding
  • 4.2 Inventory costs
    • 4.2.1 Managing inventory costs
    • 4.2.2 Push and pull control methods
  • 4.3 Types of inventory
  • 4.4 Inventory management
    • 4.4.1 Inventory management systems
    • 4.4.2 Computers and inventory management
  • 4.5 Inventory management and business success

• 5. Storage facilities, materials handling equipment and packaging

  • 5.1 The management of warehouses and distribution centres
    • 5.1.1 Storage alternatives
    • 5.1.2 Warehouse design
    • 5.1.3 Productivity associated with warehousing
    • 5.1.4 Warehouse information systems
  • 5.2 Materials handling
    • 5.2.1 Objectives of material handling
    • 5.2.2 Materials handling systems and equipment
    • 5.2.3 Materials handling productivity ratios
  • 5.3 Packaging
    • 5.3.1 The role of packaging
    • 5.3.2 Packaging materials
    • 5.3.3 Packaging design considerations

• 6. Physical distribution transportation system

  • 6.1 The role of transportation in logistics
  • 6.2 Economic and service characteristics of the modes of transport
    • 6.2.1 Rail
    • 6.2.2 Road
    • 6.2.3 Air
    • 6.2.4 Water
    • 6.2.5 Pipeline
  • 6.3 Intermodal transport services
  • 6.4 Transportation cost structures
  • 6.5 Transportation rate profiles
  • 6.6 Modal and carrier selection
  • 6.7 Management of the transport function

• 7. Change and transformation

  • 7.1 Nature of change
    • 7.1.1 The manager's role and change
    • 7.1.2 Transformation and change continuums
    • 7.1.3 Responding late in the change continuum
    • 7.1.4 Rapid change continuum cycles
    • 7.1.5 Increasing organisational responsiveness and agility
  • 7.2 Scale and pace of change
    • 7.2.1 Leading rapid change
  • 7.3 Stages of change
    • 7.3.1 The stages of change and approaches to management
    • 7.3.2 Change and the organisation's development stage
  • 7.4 Communicating change
    • 7.4.1 Guidelines for communicating change
    • 7.4.2 Communicating change to stakeholders

• 8. Building agility and responsiveness

  • 8.1 Organisational agility and the art of rapid change
  • 8.2 Agility and transformational leadership
    • 8.2.1 Transactional Leadership
    • 8.2.2 Transformational Leadership
  • 8.3 Agility and organisational responsiveness
    • 8.3.1 Principles for Constructive Change
    • 8.3.2 Agility and environmental attunement
  • 8.4 Organisational learning and enhanced agility
    • 8.4.1 Learning and organisational life cycles
    • 8.4.2 Double loop learning and the learning organisation
    • 8.4.3 The learning cycle
    • 8.4.4 Leading learning from being adaptive to generative

• 9. Foster innovation and creativity

  • 9.1 Innovation and agility
  • 9.2 Levels of innovation and their impact
    • 9.2.1 Innovation
    • 9.2.2 Improvement
    • 9.2.3 Re-engineering
    • 9.2.4 Reinventing
    • 9.2.5 Re-engineering
  • 9.3 Re-engineering and business process re-engineering
    • 9.3.1 Reengineering and quality improvement
    • 9.3.2 Identifying when to re-engineer processes
    • 9.3.3 To innovate slowly or reengineer?
  • 9.4 The need for speed
  • 9.5 Organise work to facilitate innovative practices and organisational agility
    • 9.5.1 Innovative and agile organisation
  • 9.6 Enhancing diversity and creativity of thinking in teams and work practices
    • 9.6.1 Convergent and divergent thinking
    • 9.6.2 Left- and right- brain activities
    • 9.6.3 How to generate new ideas?
  • 9.7 Creativity and solutions search in teams
    • 9.7.1 Brainstorming
    • 9.7.2 Synectics
    • 9.7.3 Forcing Techniques
    • 9.7.4 Nominal Technique
  • 9.8 Review the use of innovation in work and team practices.
    • 9.8.1 Assess the ability of the team to achieve goals
    • 9.8.2 Review the success of team leadership

4.5 Inventory management and business success

Reading 4.6

Healy, J (February 2001), 'Using inventory management to maximise profit', The Motion Systems Distributor , pp31 - 33.

Business success, in the current context, is having the right product available at the right time in the right place in the right quantity. With this in mind, some factors that indicate the effectiveness of inventory management can be identified:

1. Customer satisfaction: Finding out whether customers are satisfied with the current level of service provided is one indication of the effectiveness of the management of inventory. This factor can be explored through tracking customer loyalty, repeat orders, order cancellation, incidence and frequency of stock outs, and general relationship with suppliers and sub-contractors.
2. Expediting orders: The more often this occurs, the clearer the indication that the inventory management system is not being effective. Reordering may not be occurring at the correct levels of stock or lead times are not being realistically built into the reordering process. The fundamental issue here is that the stock is not available when it is needed.
3. Inventory turnover: Annual revenue from stock divided by value of stock indicates the level of inventory turnover. While high inventory turnover indicates a good management of stock, it can also result in some items being not available when needed. For this reason, inventory turnover must be measured for individual items or locations, rather than through the whole spread of operations.
4. Inventory and sales: As sales increase overall, the level of inventory held should decrease if the management of inventory is working as it should. The holding of stock must not be higher than the sales of that stock. When demand for specific items increases, it is often more cost effective to improve delivery processes and improve order processing than increase stock held in reserve.

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