Improvements in Inventory Management: Past Success and Future Opportunities

Douglas J. Thomas

Chapter 1 in Cross-Functional Inventory Research, 2016, pp 1-19 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: It is a privilege to contribute an essay in honor of the career and scholarly accomplishments of L. Joseph Thomas. While one needs to talk to only a few of his colleagues and former students to understand that his impact went far beyond his scholarly work, I feel comfortable in stating that he has positively influenced me in more ways and in greater magnitude than most. Nevertheless, in this chapter, I restrict my scope to a discussion of the field of inventory management, a field to which Professor Thomas has certainly made notable contributions, some of which I discuss below.In this chapter, I briefly discuss and summarize the historical inventory management successes achieved collectively by academics and practitioners. This historical success has largely come from reductions in upstream inventories held by manufacturers. I conjecture that future improvements must largely come from downstream inventories, and I discuss three areas of challenge and opportunity: (1) Rapidly changing product and delivery variety offered to the customer, (2) information sharing between channel partners, and (3) aligning incentives between channel partners.

Keywords: Inventory Management; Cross-Functional Approach; Business Strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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