Retail Training Tip of the Week
Tip #377 - The Science and Art of Inventory Analysis
Dear Tip of the Weeker -
The past is generally a fairly good predictor of what the future will bring. In any event, it's pretty much the only predictor we've got. But one very important point to keep in mind when working with past statistics:
Numbers don't lie, but they don't always tell the whole truth!
The facts are the facts. For example, you may have sold only 27 sky blue widgets last year but sold 189 red widgets and 348 yellow widgets.
Truth.
But what if the whole truth included the information that you were only shipped 27 sky blue widgets, they sold out in less than a day, and sky blue is the hottest color going? Your cash register or POS can never tell you that.
Developing a truly comprehensive inventory management plan includes both:
SCIENCE (adding, subtracting, dividing, and other fancy calculations) and
ART (the gut instinct you have about your business and the intricate knowledge the human brain is capable of understanding that the POS computer is not).
Using exclusively one or the other is going to get you in trouble every time!
