What is the “Right” Inventory Management Approach for a Purchased Item?

Speaker: Cynthia Wallin, M.B.A

The inventory management approach that a firm adopts for a particular purchased item can affect its financial well-being. So how does a firm choose among inventory speculation, inventory postponement, inventory consignment, and reverse inventory consignment for a purchased item, knowing that a chosen inventory management approach for one particular purchased item in one context may not be ideal for another purchased item in another context?

The answer to this question depends on a solid appreciation and comprehension of a set of critical factors that drive the decision to adopt one approach over another. In this presentation the critical factors are identified and explained, and then used to build a decision framework to guide a firm in its choice of an appropriate inventory management approach for a given purchased item and context.


Speaker Biography:

Cynthia Wallin is currently a doctoral candidate in Supply Chain Management at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. She also holds an M.B.A. (with a concentration in Finance and Operations) and a B.S. in Accounting, both from Brigham Young University. Her research interests include inventory management approaches and decision drivers, buyer-supplier relationships, power asymmetry in the supply chain, and performance measurement.

Before returning to ASU to pursue her doctoral studies, Cindy was a Fab/Sort Materials Operations Area Manager for Intel Corporation. In her eight years at Intel she also held the positions of Senior Buyer, Purchasing Manager, Stores Manager, and Commodity Manager. Prior to her graduate studies Cindy worked as an Auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency.