Taking Stock

 

For companies watching their inventory levels, Bruce M. Bradway and Robert E. Pritchard, authors of Protecting Profits During Inflation and Recession (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1981), suggest that colorcoding product labels according to the month the item is put in stock makes slowmoving items easy to identify. Creating a monthly schedule for returning slower items can also help. Your company can target a different group of suppliers each month to receive excess inventory of their product line.