Inventory Control (For People Who Really Have to Do It) Volume II in the Useful Management Series Preface Questions and Answers About this Book What is this book for? This is a cookbook of quick and dirty methods for solving problems in real-world, no B.S. inventory control. Who is this book for? This book is for bottom- to middle-level managers, third-world countries, and small business where computers are either too expensive or labor is too cheap or too uneducated to justify anything but the use of common sense. It is also aimed at unpretentious community colleges and business schools that want to teach people something they can use! How smart does the reader have to be? Smart enough to know that there are no pure technical problems in this world. There are just technical problems imbedded in political problems. This book is dedicated to the idea that if you don't deal with the political problems as well as you deal with the technical problems, the political problems will deal with YOU! Does this imply that politics will be covered too? Big time! The first author starts the book by taking on the most used (wrongly) method in the inventory world called the economic order quantity. He points out that this method (like any other) depends on data you can trust, such as delivery dates and the real need dates seldom given you by the sales types. He also tries to warn the unwary reader that every method carries a bag of assumptions that need to be carefully addressed before embarking on any method. A number of chapters on political aspects of inventory control based on the experiences of the authors are gleefully included. These chapters are more important than the others. Do I need calculus, algebra, or statistics for this book? No, common sense only is required. Does this book come with a computer program or a diskette? NO. This book is almost totally made up of certifiably obsolete inventory methods that no up-to-date large corporation or agency would even consider using. They certainly can be programmed but the approach of the book is for the by-hand user to have something they can use and understand. I'm an assistant professor at a business school, can I use this book? YES, if you ever met a payroll in the real world. Otherwise, NO! This book is only an outline. Actual experience is an absolute requirement to flesh out this book enough for classroom use. Also if you want to get promoted, and are resident at a school with pretensions to academic respectability rather than utility, you don't want to be found dead in a field with this book! Have the authors done this stuff for money in the real world? You bet! The first author has only worked on a money-back guarantee plus interest on payments at the prime rate if not satisfied. No requests for refunds to date. He has worked for over 40 of the Fortune 400 and has now worked in America, Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Israel, Macao, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. Has the first author ever really blown it? Big time! In those cases no fee or expenses were required or accepted. Anyone who says they never make a mistake in this field lies about his sex life TOO! Why did the authors write this book? Let's face it, the right answer for inventory control is Just-In-Time and KANBAN approaches. Unfortunately, attempts to move these methods in toto from Japan have been less than successful. These methods, in our opinion, simply require (for perfection) that you own, or control by any means possible, your suppliers (who are also physically close) and that you have a well-educated homogeneous work force. In third-world countries such as most of the United States, watching the mixture of northeastern city people and southern crackers (such as the first author) try to be homogeneous in the typical light-industry workplace is futile. Thus, we propose methods that even civil servants (such as ourselves) can use easily. What are the authors really like? Both authors have met payrolls, are opinionated, conceited, childish, intolerant of pomposity (except in themselves), highly experienced, and by most crass, materialistic measures: successful. Click here to return to the Inventory Control (For People Who Really Have to Do It) main page. Click here for information on ordering and downloading this book or learn about our other E-book titles. Web Site � Copyright 2020 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA Phone: +44 23 8110 3411 | E-mail: Web: www.lionhrtpub.com