You have just received a phone call from a senior partner at one of the “Big Four” management consultancies. She wants to meet with you to discuss the most recent developments in Inventory Management, including JIT, MRP, ERP, and Lean operations. You suspect that her true motive is to sell a SOA (supply chain opportunity assessment) to your division and to follow that up with a new software package implementation. Nevertheless, you agree to meet with her anyway.

In preparation for that meeting, you ask your staff to participate in a brainstorming meeting.

Your assignment is to create a posting with what you believe to be the most important discussion points for the meeting.

Your initial posting should cover at least the following topics:

1. How could JIT principals be incorporated in your supply chain and manufacturing operations?
2. How can you assess a MRP/ERP package’s usefulness in supporting your efforts to monitor, control, and improve your inventory management efforts? What should you realistically expect of a MRP/ERP after it is first implemented?
3. What are some important methods and tools that can be used for scheduling?

Suggestions for responding to peers include the following:

1. How are your views similar?
2. How are they different?
3. Can a better view be derived combining your two?