Subject Area: Inventory optimization solution When most people think about spare parts inventory optimization, they tend to think of expensive inventory optimization software that requires lots of training and produces ‘slice and dice’ reports. At least that’s my experience. The problem is that with spare parts inventory nobody really needs

Subject Area: Optimization Software Target Map Optimization Software Target Map Our optimization software target map is designed to help you visually identify the strengths and weakness of different software choices. The map is divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant represents a different feature of optimization software programs. For each quadrant

Subject Area: Software demos Traps to Avoid: Lesson 6 Some companies make it very hard for you to get a software demo because they are afraid of wasting time with “tire kickers”. They want you to demonstrate to them that you are worth their time! However, if a company is

Subject Area: Developing Your Own Optimization Software Traps to Avoid: Lesson 5 Avoid the temptation of developing your own optimization software. Sometimes when companies can’t find the ‘perfect fit’ from a vendor they think that they should spend their time developing your own optimization software using MS Excel or something

Subject Area: Appropriate inventory settings Traps to Avoid: Lesson 4 Be wary of using any form of weighted sorting. This is where each feature is given a weighting in terms of the contribution to the overall performance and each solution is scored. An overall score is then determined by multiplying

Subject Area: Spare parts inventory optimization trap 3 Traps to Avoid: Lesson 3 Don’t judge a solution by its position on Google! At the top of search engine results there are ads – top placement for companies that have paid for that position. Then there is a list of companies

Subject Area: Spare parts inventory optimization trap Traps to Avoid: Lesson 2 Spare parts inventories are typically made up of tens of thousands of items, but do they all need to be optimized? It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because the ‘software does the work’

Subject Area: Optimization Problems Don’t believe the hype that all optimization software will solve all optimization problems. It is easy to think that all optimization software solutions are the same – they are not. Techniques vary. Some companies keep their techniques secret. They don’t want to share the specifics of

Subject Area: Optimization Software Problem Definition Template This is our optimization software problem definition template. A problem definition should look something like this four point template: Our spare parts inventory routinely fails to deliver on our goals of minimal stock with target availability because… (insert issues of concern) This is

Subject Area: Optimization Software Selection Goals Before taking your software selection process any further you must be clear about your optimization software selection goals. Failure to frame the goals and issues from the stakeholder perspective and from that develop the problem definition will derail any attempt to gain support for