AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE SENSITIVITY OF INVENTORY COSTS DUE TO FLUCTUATIONS IN CUSTOMER DEMAND

An automated inventory management system is provided which is easy to use and user friendly to evaluate the impact of customer demand changes on inventory. For a given item, the system automatically defines an inventory model by accessing an engineering planning database. The system identifies the on-hand raw material inventory and evaluates the work-in-process inventory from the model. The system then accesses an inventory database to identify the finished goods inventory and automatically consolidates all inventory and computes the total impact. The system also provides the practicing manager necessary control limits on raw material and work-in-process inventory dollars to complete a given finished product and establishes the required inventory turns. The user can use the system to compare against acutals and take appropriate action to correct any process deficiencies. This provides the capability to evaluate inventory sensitivity to customer demand and can be used to better serve the customer and his needs.