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Concept
Safety stock
Summary
Safety stock is a term used by logisticians to describe a level of extra stock that is maintained to mitigate risk of stockouts (shortfall in raw material or packaging) caused by uncertainties in supply and demand. Adequate safety stock levels permit business operations to proceed according to their plans. Safety stock is held when uncertainty exists in demand, supply, or manufacturing yield, and serves as an insurance against stockouts.
Safety stock is an additional quantity of an item held in the inventory to reduce the risk that the item will be out of stock. It acts as a buffer stock in case sales are greater than planned and/or the supplier is unable to deliver the additional units at the expected time.
With a new product, safety stock can be used as a strategic tool until the company can judge how accurate its forecast is after the first few years, especially when it is used with a material requirements planning (MRP) worksheet. The less accurate the forecast, the more safety stock is required to ensure a given level of service. With an MRP worksheet, a company can judge how much it must produce to meet its forecasted sales demand without relying on safety stock. However, a common strategy is to try to reduce the level of safety stock to help keep inventory costs low once the product demand becomes more predictable. That can be extremely important for companies with a smaller financial cushion or those trying to run on lean manufacturing, which is aimed towards eliminating waste throughout the production process.
The amount of safety stock that an organization chooses to keep on hand can dramatically affect its business. Too much safety stock can result in high holding costs of inventory. In addition, products that are stored for too long a time can spoil, expire, or break during the warehousing process. Too little safety stock can result in lost sales and, in the thus a higher rate of customer turnover. As a result, finding the right balance between too much and too little safety stock is essential.
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Ontological neighbourhood
Related concepts (3)
Inventory
Inventory (American English) or stock (British English) refers to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the shape and placement of stocked goods. It is required at different locations within a facility or within many locations of a supply network to precede the regular and planned course of production and stock of materials.
Material requirements planning
Material requirements planning (MRP) is a production planning, scheduling, and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. Most MRP systems are software-based, but it is possible to conduct MRP by hand as well. An MRP system is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives: Ensure raw materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers. Maintain the lowest possible material and product levels in store Plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities.
Operations management
Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed and effective in meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing an entire production or service system which is the process that converts inputs (in the forms of raw materials, labor, consumers, and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and/or services for consumers).