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Inventory Management

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Submitted By lilricky75
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Inventory Management
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Operations Management BUS430
February 26th, 2015 Managing inventories is integral to a company’s success. Having too much inventory can cost the company a lot of money and having too little can be costly by losing out on customers. It is a juggle for managers to find the right balance in accurately managing inventory. Not only do they have to make sure that they can meet the demand of the customer but they also have to cost effective. Two companies that manage inventory well and still make a profit are Amazon.com and Zappos. Amazon.com is an online company that was founded by Jeff Bezos in the 90’s. Amazon.com sold books online during the early internet years. In a short amount of time it was a success. At the beginning, “Amazon.com carried only about 2,000 titles in stock in its Seattle warehouse”. (Amazon.com, Inc., 2015) Their inventory at that time was very simple compared to how it is now. To stay on top of the competition, Amazon diversified from just selling books online to other products like DVDs, toys, clothing, electronics and just about anything you can think of. Having multiple merchandise requires a strategic central location where the items can be shipped to the customer. Amazon houses their inventory in different states across the country. In order for them to have a variety of items to sell, they have other companies sell their products through the Amazon website and Amazon will fulfill the orders. Amazon has fulfillment centers that house the inventory of businesses that want to sell through Amazon.com. Amazon also makes sure the products that are hot sellers are always kept in stock to prevent a stockout. “Once it is time to get the products ready to ship, Amazon employees scour the warehouse armed with a handheld barcode reader, sorting items based on type, time of day for shipment and even potential

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