Inventory Managment

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Inventory itself is a list of products that a company has available for sale to customers. So what is Inventory Management? By definition according to BusinessDictionary.com, “Inventory Management is policies, procedures, and techniques employed in maintaining the optimum number or amount of each inventory item”.

There are many other definitions such as “a retailer seeking to acquire and maintain a proper merchandise assortment while ordering, shipping, handling, and related costs are kept in check” or “all functions related to the tracking and management of material”, and in business management, the management of ”a list of goods and materials held available in stock”. Inventory Management is necessary in order to provide continuous flow through all functions of a business at the lowest cost. Basically, inventory management is the overall way a business controls it inventory and the costs of carrying that inventory.

It is also important to understand that stock and inventory are related yet two different things just like Finance and Accounting are related yet different. Stock refers to the actual physical items and an inventory is simply a list of the items. It is impossible to have an inventory without stock. In order for a business to function properly, it must be able to effectively manage its inventory. Inventory is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, assets a business has and it must protect it. Problems with a business’s inventory can and will lead to great loss and even the failure of a business.

Inventory Management is mainly about being specific about where an item is placed and what size the item is. This is needed in all locations inside a business or possibly in many locations outside of the business but still...

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...tories or counts, a combination of computerized and manual systems, and great attention to detail.

Works Cited

Inventory Management. All right reserved. Inventory Management 2003 - 2011, Web. 17 Jan. 2011. .

"Glossary of Inventory Management Terms." Wiley: Knowledge for Generations. Copyright 2000-2011, - . www.google.com. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. .

Mandak, Kristeen. AnswerBag.com. Indian Institute of Materials Management, 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. .

BusinessDictionary.com. WebFinance, Inc., - 2010. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. .

Practical Financial Management 6th edition, William R. Lasher, 2011, 2008 South-Western, Cengage Learning, textbook

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