Inventory Control (Management) : 1. Raw Materials 2. Components
Inventory Control (Management) : 1. Raw Materials 2. Components
CHAPTER IV
INVENTORY CONTROL (MANAGEMENT)
4.1. INTRODUCTION
The fundamental problem of inventory management can be briefly described by the two
questions:
1) When should an order be placed?
2) How much should be ordered?
In general, the model that we discuss can be used interchangeably to describe either
replenishment from an outside vendor or internal production. This means that from the point
of view of the model, inventory control and production planning are often synonymous.
4.2. MEANING OF INVENTORY
Inventory is an idle resource (physical stock of goods) possessing economic value which is
waiting (kept) for future use. Here the responsibility of materials management is to maintain
sufficient inventories to meet demand for goods and at the same time incurring the
lowestinventory handling costs.
4.3. TYPES OF INVENTORIES
When we consider inventories in the context of manufacturing and distribution, there is a
natural classification scheme suggested by the value added from manufacturing or processing.
Based on this concept there are five types of Inventories. They are;
1. Raw Materials
These are the resources required in the production or processing activity of the firm.
2. Components
Components correspond to items that have not yet reached completion in the production
process. Components are sometimes referred as Sub-assemblies.
3. Work –in-process
Work-in-process (WIP) is inventory either waiting in the system for processing or being
processing. Work-in-process inventories include component inventories and may include
some raw materials inventories as well. The level of work-in-process inventory is often used
as a measure of the efficiency of a production scheduling system.
4. Finished goods
These are also known as end items, these are the final products of the production process.
During production, value is added to the inventory at each level of the manufacturing
operation, culminating with finished goods.
5. Supplies
These are items that facilitate the production and administrative functions. They are not part
of the final item. (eg. Tools, office supplies, lubricants, stationary items etc…). The
appropriate level to place on inventory depends upon the context. For example, components
for some operations might be the end products for others.
4.4. MOTIVATION FOR HOLDING INVENTORY
Organizations may hold inventories with the various motives as stated below.
1. Economies of Scale
This means that it could be economical to produce a relatively large number of items in each
production run and store them for future use. This allows the firm amortizes fixed set up
costs over a large number of units.
2. Uncertainties
Uncertainties often plays major role in motivating and firm to store in inventories.
Uncertainty of external demand is the most common.
For example, a retailer stocks different items so that he/she can be responsive to consumer
preferences. If a customer requests an item that is not available immediately, it is likely that
the customer will go elsewhere. Worse, the customer may never return.Inventory provides a
buffer against the uncertainty of demand.
Other uncertainties provide a motivation for holding inventories as well. One is the
uncertainty of the lead-time. Lead-time is defined as the amount of time that elapses from the
point that an order is placed until it arrives. In the production-planning context, interpreter the
lead-time as the time required to produce the item. A third significant source of uncertainty is
the supply. The OPEC oil embargo of the late 1970’s is an example of the chaos that can
result when supply lines are threatened.
3. Speculation
If the value of an item or natural resource is expected to increase, it may be more economical
to purchase large quantities at current price and store the items for future use than to pay the
higher price at a future date. For example, silver is required for the production of
photographic film. So by correctly anticipating a major price increase in silver, a major
producer of photographic film, such as Kodak, could purchase store, large quantities of silver
in advance of the increase and realize substantial savings.
4. Transportation
In-transit or pipeline inventories exist because transportation times are positive. When
transportation times are long, as is the case when transporting oil from the Middle East to the
United States, the investment in pipelines inventories can be substantial.One of the
disadvantages of producing Overseas is the increased transportation time and hence the
increase in pipeline inventories.
5. Smoothing
Change in the demand pattern for a product can be deterministic or random. Seasonality is an
example of a deterministic variation. While unanticipated change in economic conditions can
result in random variations. Producing and storing inventory in anticipation of peak demand
can help to alleviate the disruptions caused by changing production rates and work force
levels.
6. Logistics
We use the term logistics to describe the reasons for holding inventory different from those
outlined above. Certain constraints can arise in the purchasing, production, distribution of
items that force the system to maintain inventory. One such case is an item that must be
purchased in minimum quantities. Another is the logistic of manufacture; it is virtually
impossible to reduce all inventories to zero and expect any continuity in a manufacturing
process.
Dependent Demand Items:- are those items where their demand is related to the
demand for another item. This demand is also known as Derived Demand. For
example, the demand of subassemblies or component part will depend upon the
production schedule of other finished products.
Independent Demand Items:-are those items that are not influenced by production
operation but by the market forces. For stoking decisions of independent demand item
forecasting and EOQ model is required.
4.6.INVENTORY COSTS
Because we are interested in optimizing the inventory system, we must determine an
appropriate optimization or performance criterion. Virtually all inventory models used cost
minimization as the optimization criterion. An alternative performance criterion might be
profit maximization. However, cost minimizations and profit maximizations are essentially
equivalent criteria for most inventory control problems. Although different systems have
different characteristics, virtually all inventory costs can be placed in to one of the three
categories; holding cost, order cost, or penalty cost. Each will be discussed as follows:
1. Holding Costs
The holding cost, also known as the carrying cost or the inventory cost, is the sum of all costs
that are proportional to the amount of inventory physically on hand at any point in time. The
components of the holding cost include a variety of seemingly unrelated items. Some of these
are:
i. Cost of providing the physical space to store the items
ii. Taxes and insurances
iii. Breakage, spoilage, deterioration, and obsolescence
iv. Opportunity cost of alternative investments
v. The salaries and wages of storing, receiving and issue of material personnel.
vi. Stationary and other consumables use by the stores.
The fourth item turns out to be the most significant in computing holding costs for most
applications. Inventory and cash are in some sense equivalent capital must be invested to
either purchase or produce inventory, and decreasing inventory levels results increased
What is the interest rate that could be earned on this capital? You and I can place our money
in a saving account with an interest rate of 3%, or possibly invest in a high-yield bond with a
return of more than 3% per annum.
In general, however, most companies must earn higher rates of return on their investment than
do individuals in order to remain profitable. The value of the interest rate that corresponds to
the opportunity cost of alternative investment is related to (but not the same as) a number of
standard accounting measures, including the internal rate of return, the return on assets, and
the hurdle rate (the minimum rate that would make an investment attractive to the firm). The
value of the interest rate for the opportunity cost is usually estimated by the firms accounting
department and it is an amalgam of the accounting measures listed above. For example, we
will use the term cost of capitalto refer to this component of the holding cost. Therefore, we
may think of the holding cost, as an aggregated interest rate comprised of the four
components listed above.
For example;
20% = cost of capital
2% = Taxes & Insurance
6% = Cost of Storage
2% = Breakage & Spoilage
30% = Total interest charge
This would be interpreted as follows: We would assess a charge of 30 cents for every birr that
we have invested in inventory during a one-year period. However, as we generally measure
inventory in unit rather than in birrs, it is convenient to express the holding cost interms of
birr per unit per year rather than birr per birr per year.
2. Order Costs
The holding cost includes all of those costs that are proportional to the amount of inventory
on hand, whereas, the order cost depends on the amount of inventory that is ordered or
produced. Placement of purchase order for a material is associated with certain obvious cost
Annual Carrying
Cost (Acc)
ACC=AOC
2000 Carrying
Cost
1000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Order Annual Order
Size
Cost (AOC)
EOQ
ECONOMIC ORDER OF
QUANTITY(EOQ)
PURCHASING CARRYING
COST COST
EOQ is an order size that balances the annual carrying cost & annual ordering cost. At EOQ
the annual carrying cost is equivalent to the annual ordering cost.
Now in order to calculate the annual carrying cost (ACC) let us look at the concept of average
inventory. The concept of average e inventory is based on the following assumption;
Annual ordering cost is simply the product of number of orders & the ordering cost per order.
Q/2 x CC = D/Q x OC
Q2 = D x OC
2 CC
Q2 = 2 x D x OC
CC
2×D×OC
Q = √ CC
Where Q = economic order quantity
D = Annual demand
OC = Ordering Cost/order
CC = Carrying Cost per unit per year.
The above analysis can be summarized as follow.
Minimum Inventory Cost = ACC + AOC
Minimum total Annual Cost = ACC + AOC + Purchase cost
Example
A local distributor for Addis Tire Company expects to approximately 9,600 steel belted tires
of certain size next year. The annual carrying cost is 16.00 Birr per tier per year and the
ordering cost are 75.00 Birr per order. The distributor operates 288 days a year.
Required:
1. Determine EOQ.
2. What is the Ordering Cost per year and annual carrying cost at EOQ?
3. What is the total incremental or total inventory cost at EOQ
4. If purchase price per tire is 80.00 Birr. What is the total cost at EOQ?
5. How many times per year the store does reorders.
6. Determine the length of an order cycle.
7. Compute Ordering, Carrying, Total Inventory costs & overall total costs. If order
quantities are 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 units. What do you infer from this
exercise?
Solution:
Given: D = 9,600
CC = 16.00 Birr
OC = 75.00 Birr
Working days per year 288
2×D×OC
1. Q0 = √ CC Where Q0 is optimum Quantity.
2×9600×75
= √ 16
= 300 tires per order.
= 9,600
300
= 32 Order
7.
Order ACC = AOC = Annual Total Overall Total
Quantity (Q/2 x CC) (D/Q x OC) Inventory Cost Cost
100 800 7200 8000 Birr 776,000
150 1200 4800 6000 774,000
200 1600 3600 5200 773,200
250 2000 2880 4880 772,880
300 2400 2400 4800 772,800
350 2800 2057 4857 772,857
400 3200 1800 5000 773,000
From this we can infer that that at EOQ, total inventory or overall total cost will be minimum.
When the order size is large, the ACC will be high & for small order sizes the AOC will be
high.
The optimum quantity when there is quantity discount is the one that makes the savings from
the purchase cost equal to the total inventory cost. EOQ model is not the best method to
determine the optimum level when there is quantity discount.
Example:
A factory required 1,500 units of an item per month, each costing 27.00 Birr. The cost per
order is 150.00 Birr & inventory carrying charge is 20% of price.
Required:
1. Find the EOQ & the total material cost.
2. Would you accept a 2% discount on a minimum supply of quantity of 1,200 units?
Solution:
Given - Monthly demand = 1,500 unit so the annual demand will be 1,500x12 = 18000
Price = 27.00 Birr
CC = 0.2(P) 0.2(27) = 5.4 Birr /year /unit
OC = 150/Order
2×1, 800×150
1. EOQ = √ 5.4 = 1000 units
TCC = Q/2 x CC
= 18000/2 x 5.4 = 2,700 Birr
The total material cost with quantity discount of 2% can be obtained as follows
(N.B. – Q is 1,200 unit)
TOC = 18000/1200 x 150 = 2,250 Birr
TCC = 1,200/2 x (26.46 x 0.2) = 3,175.20 Birr
(CC is 20% of Price)
TPC = 18000 x 26.46 = 476,280 Birr
Determine the order quantity that will minimize total annual inventory cost for the price
schedule below. Annual demand is 1200 units, ordering cost is 41 br., and holding cost is birr
2 per unit per year.
Solution:
The first step is to calculate EOQ, then to identity the price break that it falls.
2×D×OC
EOQ = √ CC
2×1, 200×41
EOQ = √ 2 = 222 units
The EOQ is in the range of 200 to 299 which is not optimal because of the price breaks.
The second step is to calculate the total cost at EOQ and the price breaks of 300 to 399 and
400 or more. The calculation is as follow:
Therefore, the fourth range’s value is optimal because it has the lowest total cost.
This one is the case where the supply of orders is not instances. i.e. there is no immediate
supply of items from the suppliers’. Inorder to grasp the idea of gradual supply let’s look at
the concepts of lead-time and safety stock.
A. Lead Time
In the previous part of the EOQ model, the supplies of materials were assumed to be
immediate in Order but in practice this is not so. From the time the requisition for an item is
raised, it may take several Weeks or months before the supplies are received, inspected and
taken in to the stock. This time is called Lead-Timeand involves the time for the completion of
all or some of the following activities.
Obviously, in order to receive supplies before the stock reaches zero level, it is necessary to
order the materials much in advance. i.e. when the stock available I sufficient to lost during
the lead time. This is shown graphically in figure (3.1) given below.
Suppose an item has lead time of 15 days and the monthly consumption (assuming 30 days
per month) of the item is 600 units, then the reorder must be placed when the stock available
is sufficient to last 15 days is 300 units.
Order here to
receive supply
500
at ‘C’
400
Unit in Stock
R1 R2
300 ROL = 300
200
100
= 15 days
ROL = Stock sufficient to last during the lead time is 300 units.
Here the Re-order point is lead- time multiplied by daily demand.
Since safety stock is part of inventory, it should be maintained just sufficient to guard against
the uncertainties and not –too –excessive (especially for ‘A’ items).
In order to decide on the level of the safety stock, we should analyze the following aspects:
In most cases it is found that the variations in consumptions can be predicted fairly in advance
accurately by good production and maintenance planning and does not present much a
problem. However, the lead-time variation is more erratic and unpredictable.
One simple method of determining safety stock in such cases is to approximately estimate the
maximum lead-time and the normal lead time for an item in consultation with the purchasing
personnel and from the past records. The safety stock then be sufficient to last the periodic
difference between maximum and minimum lead-time period.
Suppose for an item monthly consumption is 100 units, the normal lead-time is 15 days and
maximum lead-time is estimated as one month. The safety stock will be;
In the determination of the EPQ the carrying cost remains the same but the ordering cost is
replaced by set-up-cost which is the cost of preparing production for operations.
When p>d;
= ( D ) x Sc Where :
Q0 Q0 = run Size EPQ
Sc = Set-up cost/year.
Q d D
The Total Annual =
2 ( )
1− ×CC+
p Q0
×Sc
( )
The Optimum production size will also be determined as follows;
2×D×Sc
EPQ Q0 = √ (1−d / p)×cc
Where D = Annual demand
Sc = Set-up cost /run
CC = Annual carrying cost/unit
d/p = Part of production that is not inventoried
1 - d/p = Part of production that is carried in inventory
Example
A toy manufacturer uses 48,000 rubber wheels per year for its popular dump- truck series.
The firm makes its own wheel, which it can produce at a rate of 800 per day. The toy trucks
are assembled uniformly over the entire year. Carrying cost is Br 1.00 per wheel a year. Set
up cost for a production and change over from the previous production is Br. 45.00. The firm
operates 240 days per year. Determine each of the following.
2×D×Sc
= EPQ= √ (1−d / p)×cc
2×48 ,000×45
= √ (1−200/800 )×1 = 2400 Wheels
Here one run will last for 3 days = 2400 and form this quantity level 600
800
wheels will be consumed (3 x 200) and the remaining 1,800 units will be kept in the sore.
=
(482400, 000 )×45+ 2 , 400
2 ( 1−
200
800 )
×1
= 900 + 900
= Birr 1,800
The 20 runs cover 60 production days. i.e. 20 x 3 = 60 days and in this period there is
production and consumption simultaneously. The remaining 180 days are idle time
between runs & during these periods there is only consumption.
= Q0 x (1 – d/p)
= 2,400( 1- 200/800) = 1800