Simple Inventory Management

Are you having trouble finding an Inventory System that meets your needs and your budget?

• CoreIMS© addresses all of your warehouse needs, cost effectively.
• CoreIMS© will manage single or multiple warehouses.
• CoreIMS© is easy to install, easy to use and inexpensive to operate.
• CoreIMS© delivers savings typically associated with much more expensive warehouse management software through improved inventory accuracy and increased labor productivity.
• CoreIMS© delivers real-time inventory information to help you better manage your business and improve customer service.
• CoreIMS© is RF/Batch Barcode Scanning and Printing capable.
• CoreIMS© has web access capabilities. CoreIMS could work on your local PC or through the Internet.
• CoreIMS© is integrated with accounting software (QuickBooks, MAS90/200).

An affordable and feature-rich Inventory System!

Designed for small to medium warehouses, CoreIMS© inventory control software addresses all of your warehouse needs, from Purchasing through Receiving, Inventory Management, Sales Orders and Shipping. CoreIMS© delivers Barcode scanning and Barcode label printing capability to improve inventory control and order fulfillment accuracy. Maintain and manage Vendor and Customer contact information in one system, including multiple ship-to addresses. Customizable reports deliver useful information in a timely manner to corporate management. Integration with standard accounting (QuickBooks, MAS 90/200), shipping and ERP software further extends the capabilities of our inventory management software.

Hundreds of companies have chosen CoreIMS© Inventory as their inventory control system because of its incredible quality and value.

More Info

The more information you have about your inventory, the less inventory you need to have. Zebra has bar code and RFID labeling solutions you can use to accurately identify inventory throughout your storage, handling, and distribution processes. Whether you want simple serial numbers or advanced identification solutions to provide customer, configuration, and traceability data, Zebra has printer, label, bar code, RFID, and software solutions to bring accuracy and visibility to your inventory control operations.

• Start by selecting the right printer and material combination for your inventory labeling needs from Zebra's unsurpassed options.
• Print and apply labels right at receiving and processing areas with wireless, mobile, and cart-mounted printers to eliminate mistakes and unidentified items.
• Prevent shipping errors by matching inventory ID labels with packing lists.
• Use Zebra's networking, connectivity, and software solutions to link inventory identification systems with enterprise applications to eliminate data latency and to gain real-time visibility and control.
• Track and protect inventory efficiently with RFID and secure media solutions.
• Give your enterprise real-time inventory visibility by linking printing operations to enterprise systems with Zebra networking and ERP integration solutions.

Effective Inventory Management

What Is Effective Inventory Management?

"Effective inventory management allows a distributor
to meet or exceed his (or her) customers' expectations
of product availability with the amount of each item
that will maximize the distributor's net profits."

Inventory is usually a distributor's largest asset. But many distributors aren't satisfied with the contribution inventory makes towards the overall success of their business:

• The wrong quantities of the wrong items are often found on warehouse shelves. Even though there maybe a lot of surplus inventory and dead stock in their warehouse(s), backorders and customer lost sales are common. The material a distributor has committed to stock isn't available when customers request it.

• Computer inventory records are not accurate. Inventory balance information in the distributor's expensive computer system does not accurately reflect what is available for sale in the warehouse.

• The return on investment is not satisfactory. The company's profits, considering its substantial investment in inventory, is far less than what could be earned if the money were invested elsewhere.

Effective Inventory Management, Inc. is dedicated to helping distributors provide outstanding customer service while maximizing the return on their inventory investment. All of our products, classroom instruction, and consulting services are designed to lead your company through the practical implementation of a successful inventory management system. Just as important, you will gain the knowledge necessary to enhance and modify your inventory system to meet your company's changing needs.

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Who

Inventory Control

Inventory control is concerned with minimizing the total cost of inventory. In the U.K. the term often used is stock control. The three main factors in inventory control decision making process are:

• The cost of holding the stock (e.g., based on the interest rate).
• The cost of placing an order (e.g., for row material stocks) or the set-up cost of production.
• The cost of shortage, i.e., what is lost if the stock is insufficient to meet all demand.

The third element is the most difficult to measure and is often handled by establishing a "service level" policy, e. g, certain percentage of demand will be met from stock without delay.

The ABC Classification The ABC classification system is to grouping items according to annual sales volume, in an attempt to identify the small number of items that will account for most of the sales volume and that are the most important ones to control for effective inventory management.

Reorder Point: The inventory level R in which an order is placed where R = D.L, D = demand rate (demand rate period (day, week, etc), and L = lead time.

Safety Stock: Remaining inventory between the times that an order is placed and when new stock is received. If there are not enough inventories then a shortage may occur.

Safety stock is a hedge against running out of inventory. It is an extra inventory to take care on unexpected events. It is often called buffer stock. The absence of inventory is called a shortage.

Quantity Discount Model Calculation Steps:

• Compute EOQ for each quantity discount price.
• Is computed EOQ in the discount range?
• If not, use lowest cost quantity in the discount range.
• Compute Total Cost for EOQ or lowest cost quantity in discount range.
• Select quantity with the lowest Total Cost, including the cost of the items purchased.

The following This JavaScript compute the optimal values for the decision variables based on currently available information about the above factors.

Enter the needed information, and then click the Calculate button.

In entering your data to move from cell to cell in the data-matrix use the Tab key not arrow or enter keys.

References

Reference books

• Rudolf Kalman, 1960 .
• L. S. Pontryagin, 1962. The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes.
• Bryson, A. E., 1969. Applied Optimal Control: Optimization, Estimation, & Control.
• Kirk, D. E., 2004. Optimal Control Theory: An Introduction.
• Lebedev, L. P., and Cloud, M. J., 2003. The Calculus of Variations and Functional Analysis with Optimal Control and Applications in Mechanics. World Scientific. Especially chpt. 2.
• Lewis, F. L., and Syrmos, V. L., 19nn. Optimal Control, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons.
• Stengel, R. F., 1994. Optimal Control and Estimation. Dover.
• Sethi, S. P., and Thompson, G. L., 2000. Optimal Control Theory: Applications to Management Science and Economics, 2nd ed. Springer (ISBN 0-7923-8608-6)
• Sontag, Eduardo D. Mathematical Control Theory: Deterministic Finite Dimensional Systems. Second Edition. Springer. (ISBN 0-387-984895) (available free online)
• Brogan, William L. 1990. Modern Control Theory. ISBN 0135897637

Inventory Control General method

A generalization of the calculus of variations, is a mathematical optimization method for deriving control policies. The method is largely due to the work of Lev Pontryagin and his collaborators, summarized in English in Pontryagin (1962).

General method

Optimal control deals with the problem of finding a control law for a given system such that a certain optimality criterion is achieved. A control problem includes a cost functional that is a function of state and control variables. An optimal control is a set of differential equations describing the paths of the control variables that minimize the cost functional. The optimal control can be derived using Pontryagin's maximum principle (a necessary condition), or by solving the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation (a sufficient condition).

We begin with a simple example. Consider a car traveling on a straight line through a hilly road. The question is, how should the driver press the accelerator pedal in order to minimize the total traveling time? Clearly in this example, the term control law refers specifically to the way in which the driver presses the accelerator and shifts the gears. The "system" consists of both the car and the road, and the optimality criterion is the minimization of the total traveling time. Control problems usually include ancillary constraints. For example the amount of available fuel might be limited, the accelerator pedal cannot be pushed through the floor of the car, speed limits, etc.

A proper cost functional is a mathematical expression giving the traveling time as a function of the speed, geometrical considerations, and initial conditions of the system. It is often the case that the constraints are interchangeable with the cost functional.

Another optimal control problem is to find the way to drive the car so as to minimize its fuel consumption, given that it must complete a given course in a time not exceeding some amount. Yet another control problem is to minimize the total monetary cost of completing the trip, given assumed monetary prices for time and fuel.

A more abstract framework goes as follows. Given a dynamical system with time-varying input u(t), time-varying output y(t) and time-varying state x(t), define a cost functional to be minimized. The cost functional is the sum of the path costs, which usually take the form of an integral over time, and the terminal costs, which is a function only of the terminal (i.e., final) state, x(T). Thus, this cost functional typically takes the form

where T is the terminal time of the system. It is common, but not required, to have the initial (i.e., starting) time of the system be 0 as shown. The minimization of a functional of this nature is related to the minimization of action in Lagrangian mechanics, in which case L(x,u,t) is called the Lagrangian