Book excerpt: Inventory management is a critical component of supply chain management, addressing how much inventory should be carried across the supply chain, where to carry it, and how much safety stock is required to meet the organization's cost and customer service objectives. Now, there's an authoritative and comprehensive guide to best-practice inventory management in any organization. Authored by world-class experts in collaboration with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), this text gives students and practitioners a thorough understanding of each leading approach to managing supply chain inventories, and the variables that drive decisions about inventory levels. It discusses the fundamental need for inventory, how product value affects inventory decisions, how to determine inventory levels, how the number of inventory locations affects inventory levels, and new approaches to reducing inventory. Coverage includes: Basic inventory management goals, roles, concepts, purposes, and terminology, including periodic inventory, perpetual inventory, safety stock, cycle count, ABC analysis, carrying and stockout costs, and more Key inventory management elements, processes, and interactions Principles/strategies for establishing efficient and effective inventory flows The critical role of technology in inventory planning and management New approaches to reducing inventory including postponement, vendor-managed inventories, cross-docking, and quick response systems Understanding essential trade-offs between inventory and transportation costs, including the impact of carrying costs Requirements and challenges of global inventory management Best practices for assessing inventory management performance using standard metrics and frameworks