The 80/20 Rule
How to Reduce Safety Stock Using the 80/20 Rule The 80/20 rule is often used in parts inventory management to identify the 20% of inventory that produces 80% of the profits.A variant of this rule, called ABC analysis, is commonly used to split inventory into three parts according to their profitability. This allows the organization to focus efforts and money on the inventory items that count the most. While this is a good way to put the 80/20 rule to use, there are other equally useful applications of this powerful principle. Suppose the organization already used the 80/20 rule to identify the most profitable inventory items and have eliminated or reduced the least profitable ones. While this is a significant improvement in cutting down inventory costs, company can go further by applying the 80/20 rule to your safety stock. So how can we use the 80/20 rule to minimize uncertainties? Let’s look at supplier unreliability. Unreliable suppliers are the suppliers w...