A tour through the wilds of inventory management

Abstract

Inventory management is generally perceived as a well-researched topic. However, our experience in working with numerous leading companies shows that putting theory into practice still poses significant challenges.
In this presentation, we will explore why many companies still try to deal with symptoms instead of fixing the root causes of poor inventory management. We will also discuss behavioral causes why people trust their own colleague more than an external expert (or algorithm) even though the expert gives you better recommendations on how to plan your inventories. “Goals gone wild” is also a topic to be covered as many companies often use too many ill-defined, sometimes contradicting inventory performance targets leading to poor operational performance. As an outlook, we will discuss future developments in the area of inventory management such as 3D printing and omni-channel inventory management.

Biography

Marcel is a Principal at Barkawi Management Consultants. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from University of Münster and a doctoral degree in Supply Chain Management and Management Science from University of Cologne. He also attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, EPFL in Lausanne, IMD International, and Harvard Business School. During his consulting career, he has worked for numerous companies in a variety of industries in the areas of strategic supply chain management, supply chain planning incl. inventory management, and operational improvements.
Barkawi Management Consultants are internationally operating management consultants specializing in Supply Chain Management and After Sales Services. The company was set up in 1994, now has over 100 employees and sites in Munich (head office), Shanghai, Moscow, Atlanta and Vienna. Barkawi’s clients are first and foremost globally operating companies with capital-intensive and logistically complex business models. We combine our special consultancy expertise in Supply Chain Management with implementation, i.e. we also put plans into action! In a survey of managers carried out by the “Capital” magazine in 2015 we were voted Hidden Champion for the third time, and ranked Number 1 in Supply Chain Management above the large consultancy firms. “WirtschaftsWoche” described us as “highly specialised consultants regarded among German managing directors as out of the top drawer of Supply Chain Management consultants” and in 2012 rated us Number 1 in “Best of Consulting 2012 – Project Excellence” in the Supply Chain Management category.

To register please send an email to: melanie.winkelmann(at)klu.org

The Lecture Series

The KLU Lecture Series is a forum for scientists and practitioners to talk and discuss on state-of-the art topics related loosely to logistics and entrepreneurship.