Inventory Order Management Blog

November 2011 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®: Overall Summary

RightOn Inventory — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING...

"Business activity continues to swing back and forth. Customer traffic remains lower than expected, but discretionary spending is fluctuating, making it difficult to find the pulse of the consumer." (Arts, Entertainment & Recreation)
"Lending is getting a little better. Competition for good deals is fierce because there remains a very limited number of high-quality borrowers." (Finance & Insurance)
"Raw materials prices appear to be stabilizing, and in some cases are dropping. Diesel fuels remain elevated and have not dropped." (Mining)
"We currently see no signs of a turnaround. Customers are nervous about the future of their jobs and incomes. Due to this fact, our sales are down and our need to hire more employees is, too." (Accommodation & Food Services)
"Business is slowly improving. Outlook for the next few months is good." (Retail Trade)
"In the face of an extremely tight business climate, prices continue to be sticky. We are not seeing significant price moderation." (Management of Companies & Support Services)

ISM NON-MANUFACTURING SURVEY RESULTS AT A GLANCE COMPARISON OF ISM NON-MANUFACTURING AND ISM MANUFACTURING SURVEYS* NOVEMBER 2011
	Non-Manufacturing						Manufacturing
Index	Series Index Nov	Series Index Oct	Percent Point Change	Direction	Rate of Change	Trend** (Months)	Series Index Nov	Series Index Oct	Percent Point Change
NMI/PMI	52.0	52.9	-0.9	Growing	Slower	24	52.7	50.8	+1.9
Business Activity/Production	56.2	53.8	+2.4	Growing	Faster	28	56.6	50.1	+6.5
New Orders	53.0	52.4	+0.6	Growing	Faster	28	56.7	52.4	+4.3
Employment	48.9	53.3	-4.4	Contracting	From Growing	1	51.8	53.5	-1.7
Supplier Deliveries	50.0	52.0	-2.0	Unchanged	From Slowing	1	49.9	51.3	-1.4
Inventories	52.5	45.5	+7.0	Growing	From Contracting	1	48.3	46.7	+1.6
Prices	62.5	57.1	+5.4	Increasing	Faster	28	45.0	41.0	+4.0
Backlog of Orders	48.0	47.0	+1.0	Contracting	Slower	2	45.0	47.5	-2.5
New Export Orders	55.5	54.0	+1.5	Growing	Faster	4	52.0	50.0	+2.0
Imports	48.5	48.0	+0.5	Contracting	Slower	3	49.0	49.5	-0.5
Inventory Sentiment	63.0	57.5	+5.5	Too High	Faster	174	N/A	N/A	N/A
Customers' Inventories	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	50.0	43.5	+6.5

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Santa's Supply Chain: Best in the World?

RightOn Inventory — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:55:49 GMT

Richard Howells, SAP

Gartner likes to publish the Top 25 Supply Chains every year. Unfortunately, there’s one supply chain the esteemed analyst firm continues to overlook. And it just so happens to be the greatest supply chain success story of all time. I’m talking about The Santa Claus Supply Chain. Don’t believe me? Who else can claim:

A laser focus on the target market – Children of all ages
100% perfect order rating, on-time delivery and fill rates
A global distribution channel that spans the world in 24 hours
Direct Door to Chimney Delivery Model
A committed workforce with zero turnover
The very first known supply chain to run “in the cloud”

Let’s take a closer look at Jolly St. Nick’s supply chain superiority, shall we?

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Apple's Supply-Chain Secret? Hoard Lasers

RightOn Inventory — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

About five years ago, Apple design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer’s aluminum casing to indicate when its camera was on. The problem? It’s physically impossible to shine light through metal.

Ive called in a team of manufacturing and materials experts to figure out how to make the impossible possible, according to a former employee familiar with the development who requested anonymity to avoid irking Apple. The team discovered it could use a customized laser to poke holes in the aluminum small enough to be nearly invisible to the human eye but big enough to let light through.

Applying that solution at massive volume was a different matter. Apple needed lasers, and lots of them. The team of experts found a U.S. company that made laser equipment for microchip manufacturing which, after some tweaking, could do the job. Each machine typically goes for about $250,000. Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of them to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company’s MacBook Airs, Trackpads, and wireless keyboards

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Five Steps to Painless Inventory Management

RightOn Inventory — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Inventory management is not the sort of thing that gets most entrepreneurs' blood flowing--until their inventory manager leaves. That's exactly what happened to Marc Isaacson, the CEO of online integrative pharmacy Village Green Apothecary, in 2008. Isaacson filled the position by promoting a purchasing assistant. Before long, the company was running out of its most popular items. "At the very least, we lost those particular sales and in some cases, we lost the customers," Isaacson says. He estimates the total loss at 2% to 3% of sales.

Isaacson's first fix was to start using a "blue dot" system: putting a blue dot next to each of his approximately 1,000 best-selling items, making them easier to identify, and requiring three to four weeks' of stock for each. About 2% of Village Green's inventory used to be out of stock at any given time; after using blue dot, that number came down to just 0.5%.

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Make it Easy for Customers to Do Business with You

RightOn Inventory — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

by Claudia Bruemmer

Business in the wholesale industry can be very competitive. That’s why wholesalers need to make it easy for their customers to find them in the right vertical search directories, and then make it easy to conduct business. Some important variables include order response speed and customer service requests, the time to market with new products, your delivery speed and the overall customer experience on your site. Retaining customers and growing revenue from existing customers is vital to a wholesale company’s success.

Additionally, there are a wide range of electronic message exchange and business processes necessary in wholesale distribution, including ecommerce integration, punchout integration, purchase order exchange, invoice exchange, price and product availability verification and EDI integration. To achieve success, wholesalers need to streamline the following processes, which are further described below.

• Real-time integration between the ecommerce site and customers and suppliers
• Support for critical transactions and processes including punchout, real-time queries and business document exchanges
• Coordination between formats and protocols, allowing all companies to communicate with their native systems and applications

Ecommerce Integration. Ecommerce has changed the way purchases are made because of its convenience and ease of use. In B2B ecommerce, integration between the store and the buyers’ and suppliers’ applications is vital for a successful operation and essential for a seamless shopping experience.

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Using Excel For Business: 10 Productivity Tips

RightOn Inventory — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

While RightOnInventory.com saves the typical small business 11000 steps per week or 3 hours, there are tasks beyond our reach that can be done in Excel - here are some great tips:

Most business owners use only a small percentage of Microsoft Excel for business analysis. In addition, most of us never progress past the elementary level because we keep doing things the same way instead of learning new functions. It is time that all changed!

Here are my top 10 productivity tips with Excel spreadsheets (note: may vary by Excel version).

1. Audit tool bar. Many users go crazy ensuring that the right columns and rows are being used in any given formula. The audit tool bar traces graphically which cells are included in a mathematical formula for a given cell—a real lifesaver to catch embarrassing errors that inevitably happen.

2. Quickly sum up numbers. This is the most common mathematical function used in Excel. Simply highlight the cell where the result is to appear and press ALT plus +.

3. Auto fill series. Spreadsheets are traditionally about some type of series. Save a lot of time in the typing of months or any series by using auto fill—and that way you don't skip anyone item in that series as well.

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What If You Paid Nothing for SAP Software: How SAP’s TCO Compares for Supply Planning

RightOn Inventory — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Background and Motivation for the Research

When I am often told about the reasons for decisions to go with software that I am familiar with, the logic often does not seem to make sense. In fact the entire process for repeatedly selecting expensive and lower functionality software from the major monopoly vendors turns out not to be based on the main comparison points of software. The main comparison points of enterprise software are the TCO and the application’s functionality. However, companies primarily look for solutions from vendors that they are already working with, and then allow the issue of integration to play a primary decision-making role. Therefore, they primarily ignore TCO (most tend to make decisions without knowing the estimated TCO), focusing more on initial software acquisition cost, and de-emphasize the functionality comparison between applications. A primary way this is done is by having executives, who don’t work with enterprise applications perform the functionality observation through a controlled demo environment and by marginalizing the users, removing them from the decision-making process. This allows applications that are weak or have unreliable functionality to compete with vendors that have excellent and reliable functionality.

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ERP versus Best-of-Breed?

RightOn Inventory — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

by Karin Bursa

I recently spoke with a reporter who asked me to discuss the benefits of supply chain software from a best-of-breed provider such as Logility versus from an ERP vendor. The benefits are measurable; however I felt it important he understand the idea of a “fully integrated” system from a single enterprise vendor is just that, an idea. A common misperception is that supply chain capabilities from ERP providers are fully integrated and lead to quicker deployment with a lower cost of ownership.

In speaking with many of you and working with supply chain research firms about implementation time, ROI and time to value, we often find a common theme. Supply chain modules from ERP providers are more challenging to integrate with their own financial, inventory, and order management modules than leveraging a best-of-breed provider. In reality supply chain from your ERP provider will likely present a higher total cost of ownership than a best-of-breed solution. This sounds counter-intuitive until you dig a little deeper. An independent third-party just did this and recently wrote about it.

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Enhancing Margins in High-Tech Manufacturing (Part II)

RightOn Inventory — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

The high-tech industry will face higher competition, higher customer expectations and increasingly shorter product lifecycles going forward. These challenges will need to be met head-on with aggressive mitigation strategies.

This is part two in a two-part editorial on enhancing margins in high-tech manufacturing. Part one can be found here.

Collaboration

"In the long history of humankind those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." - Charles Darwin

Vast networks of global trading partners, the spread of warehouses and distributors across the globe, demand and supply from various quarters of the globe, completely outsourced design, manufacturing and logistics in some cases make successful collaboration an imperative for the flow of continuous information across extended supply chain. Capacity management being one of the most critical factors for company's long term success, collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment is a must to reduce the bull-whip effect. Lack of established process with external entities, ad-hoc collaboration through mails, and lack of scalable collaborative tools which can enable the flow and visibility of goods are the hurdles preventing increasing collaboration across the supply chain. Deploying IT-tools across geographies and across all partners of supply-chain is a big challenge because of the huge costs of integration involved.

Oracle Applications supports collaboration with multiple supply chain partners using tools such as Oracle B2B -- an extensible, standards based tool to define, configure, manage and monitor the exchange of information, electronically, between two or more enterprises. HTML/XML formats are supported for easy transfer of information across supply chain.

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Best Policy for Inventory Stock Status? Be Transparent

RightOn Inventory — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Most customers can deal with miniscule shipping mistakes. The majority are forgiving when damaged shipments are quickly addressed or replaced, and most will even return shop if their issues are fixed expeditiously. But what if the order is never fulfilled due to lack of inventory?

Most customers can deal with miniscule shipping mistakes. The majority are forgiving when damaged shipments are quickly addressed or replaced, and most will even return shop if their issues are fixed expeditiously.

But what if the order is never fulfilled due to lack of inventory?

Last month HP discontinued the TouchPad — the company’s tablet that runs on the webOS operating system. Overnight, the 16-gigabyte version went from $399 to just $99. Both techies and not-so-savvy users rushed to brick and mortar stores and online venues to get a killer deal. Most of the big guys had it up for grabs — Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, and Best Buy websites were inundated with so much traffic many complained they weren’t able to get the stores to load in any browser.

Just as soon as the excitement started, however, angst kicked in. Despite stores listing the devices as being in stock, within days consumers of some stores — most notably Amazon and Barnes & Noble — received emails saying the units were oversold.

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THANK YOU!

RightOn Inventory — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

On this Thanksgiving Holiday, we are spending time with our families and friends, whom we're very thankful for and hope you are doing the same.

THANK YOU TO OUR CUSTOMERS. We are thankful for your business, loyalty and the feedback you given us so that we can continue to grow and improve. We started our software company to make a difference with small business all over the world and to help them manage their inventory at peak financial performance and free capital that may be used elsewhere. Your recommendations, referrals and praise are greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU!

J.D. Power and Associates Reports: September New-Vehicle Retail Selling Rate Shows Marked Improvement From August

RightOn Inventory — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

"Continued inventory stock replenishment and Japanese OEM recovery is responsible for the large year-over-year increase relative to the lower level of recovery in vehicle demand," said Schuster. "As inventory normalizes into 2012, growth in production levels is expected to slow to a pace more consistent with sales."

New-vehicle retail sales for September continue to improve, with the selling rate expected to be much stronger than in August, according to J.D. Power and Associates, which gathers real-time transaction data from more than 8,900 retail franchisees throughout the United States.

Retail Light-Vehicle Sales

September new-vehicle retail sales are projected to come in at 842,400 units, which represents a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of 10.3 million units. This marks the first time the retail selling rate would be above 10 million units since the 10.8 million-unit rate in April. Retail transactions are the most accurate measurement of true underlying consumer demand for new vehicles.

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Cargo Economic Woes

RightOn Inventory — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Note: Even arch-optimist of the air-freight business Ram Menen, divisional senior vice-president cargo for Emirates, strikes a sombre note: "The market challenges seem to be never-ending these days. Forecasting has become extremely challenging," he says. In theory, he reckons low inventory-to-sales ratios in markets such as the USA should point to an upsurge in inventory replenishment in the coming months. However, bearing in mind two other recent peak seasons which disappointed - 2008 and 2010 - he is not banking on it. In retrospect, the peak month for air cargo was May 2010, when the post-2009 recession bounceback reached its height.

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Four mega trends shaping the future of commerce

RightOn Inventory — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:34:37 GMT

Note the growth of local and the need to share inventory status – it will be critical to have inventory on hand.

The fact that we all have technology at our fingertips has caused a disintermediation within traditional commerce, and significant disruption for retailers big and small. Consider the impact of Netflix on Blockbuster and local video stores, or how Amazon upended book buying. What we know for sure is that innovation, and the speed at which a business is able to innovate, is no longer an option. Rather, it is paramount to survival.

In the next decade, we’ll see more change in the commerce landscape than in the past 100 years combined.The reason? Four mega trends being driven by consumers are dramatically changing buying and selling habits as we know them. Merchants of all types—from brick-and-mortar retail outlets to non-profits, to manufacturers and even those selling online, need to ensure they’re keeping pace or risk going the way of Blockbuster, Borders and the dinosaurs.

Mobile

Smartphone sales are on such an aggressive upward trajectory that some estimates suggest there will be up to 50 billion connected devices (beyond just smartphones) by 2020 and each consumer will have approximately seven devices connected to the Internet. Beyond just making phone calls or sending text messages, people regularly look up directions, research products while in-store, chat and compare with friends and family, search for deals and even pay for their morning coffee with their mobile phone.

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October 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® - Buying Policy

RightOn Inventory — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:59:00 GMT

Buying Policy

Average commitment leadtime for Capital Expenditures decreased 4 days to 113 days. Average leadtime for Production Materials decreased 2 days to 55 days. Average leadtime for Maintenance, Repair and Operating (MRO) Supplies decreased 1 day to 25 days.

Percent Reporting
Capital Expenditures	Hand- to- Mouth	30 Days	60 Days	90 Days	6 Months	1 Year+	Average Days
Oct 2011	24	8	11	22	24	11	113
Sep 2011	22	10	14	16	26	12	117
Aug 2011	28	8	8	19	25	12	114
Jul 2011	30	9	10	15	23	13	112

Production Materials	Hand- to- Mouth	30 Days	60 Days	90 Days	6 Months	1 Year+	Average Days
Oct 2011	16	39	25	13	5	2	55
Sep 2011	15	37	28	13	5	2	57
Aug 2011	14	46	22	13	3	2	52
Jul 2011	16	38	27	12	5	2	55

MRO Supplies	Hand- to- Mouth	30 Days	60 Days	90 Days	6 Months	1 Year+	Average Days
Oct 2011	44	40	12	4	0	0	25
Sep 2011	43	37	16	4	0	0	26
Aug 2011	45	39	12	3	1	0	26
Jul 2011	44	43	9	4	0	0	24

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October 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® - Customer Inventories

RightOn Inventory — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:52:00 GMT

Customers' Inventories*

The ISM Customers' Inventories Index registered 43.5 percent in October, 5.5 percentage points lower than in September when the index registered 49 percent. This is the 31st consecutive month the Customers' Inventories Index has been below 50 percent, indicating that respondents believe their customers' inventories are too low at this time.

The five manufacturing industries reporting customers' inventories as being too high during October are: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Furniture & Related Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; and Chemical Products. The 11 industries reporting customers' inventories as too low during October — listed in order — are: Primary Metals; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Textile Mills; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Plastics & Rubber Products; Transportation Equipment; Machinery; Paper Products; Computer & Electronic Products; and Fabricated Metal Products.

Customers' Inventories	% Reporting	%Too High	%About Right	%Too Low	Net	Index
Oct 2011	71	12	63	25	-13	43.5
Sep 2011	73	17	64	19	-2	49.0
Aug 2011	73	15	63	22	-7	46.5
Jul 2011	72	11	66	23	-12	44.0

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October 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®

RightOn Inventory — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:47:00 GMT

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING ...

"Starting to see some deflation on raw materials." (Chemical Products)
"Overall industry volumes remain flat vs. previous month. Uncertainty in supply chain is increasing due to lower volumes vs. historical." (Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components)
"International: contraction in demand for our products is driving mitigation of excess material on order. Contract manufacturers are adjusting their resources accordingly." (Machinery)
"Business is very strong, both domestically and internationally." (Fabricated Metal Products)
"With metal prices declining, we are seeing some short-term forecast strength. If metal pricing increases again, this strength is expected to disappear again." (Primary Metals)
"Auto industry still strong." (Transportation Equipment)
"Business is slowing — not crashing — but uncertainty and caution is the order of the day." (Plastics & Rubber Products)
"Retail branded business is slower than expected due to consumers continuing to move to private label- and store-brand products for price advantage. Raw material supplies are in good shape, but prices are staying stubbornly higher than expected." (Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products)

MANUFACTURING AT A GLANCE OCTOBER 2011
Index	Series Index Oct	Series Index Sep	Percentage Point Change	Direction	Rate of Change	Trend* (Months)
PMI	50.8	51.6	-0.8	Growing	Slower	27
New Orders	52.4	49.6	+2.8	Growing	From Contacting	1
Production	50.1	51.2	-1.1	Growing	Slower	2
Employment	53.5	53.8	-0.3	Growing	Slower	25
Supplier Deliveries	51.3	51.4	-0.1	Slowing	Slower	29
Inventories	46.7	52.0	-5.3	Contracting	From Growing	1
Customers' Inventories	43.5	49.0	-5.5	Too Low	Faster	31
Prices	41.0	56.0	-15.0	Decreasing	From Increasing	1
Backlog of Orders	47.5	41.5	+6.0	Contracting	Slower	5
Exports	50.0	53.5	-3.5	Unchanged	From Growing	1
Imports	49.5	54.5	-5.0	Contracting	From Growing	1

OVERALL ECONOMY				Growing	Slower	29
Manufacturing Sector				Growing	Slower	27

*Number of months moving in current direction.

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October 2011 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® - Inventory Sentiment

RightOn Inventory — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:32:00 GMT

Inventory Sentiment

The ISM Non-Manufacturing Inventory Sentiment Index in October registered 57.5 percent, which is 1.5 percentage points lower than the 59 percent reported in September. This indicates that respondents believe their inventories are still too high at this time. In October, 20 percent of respondents said their inventories were too high, 5 percent said their inventories were too low, and 75 percent said their inventories were about right.

The seven industries reporting a feeling that their inventories are too high in October — listed in order — are: Finance & Insurance; Other Services; Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; Professional, Scientific & Technical Services; Wholesale Trade; Utilities; and Public Administration. No industry reported that inventories are too low in October. Nine industries reported no change in inventory sentiment in October compared to September.

Inventory Sentiment	%Too High	%About Right	%Too Low	Index
Oct 2011	20	75	5	57.5
Sep 2011	21	76	3	59.0
Aug 2011	23	66	11	56.0
Jul 2011	27	65	8	59.5

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October 2011 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® - Inventory Sentiment

RightOn Inventory — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:25:00 GMT

Inventories

ISM's Non-Manufacturing Inventories Index contracted in October, registering 45.5 percent. The index is 6 percentage points lower than the 51.5 percent reading that was reported in September. Of the total respondents in October, 27 percent indicated they do not have inventories or do not measure them. Comments from respondents include: "Working down inventory level" and "Adjusting to business level."

The five industries reporting an increase in inventories in October are: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting; Retail Trade; Mining; Transportation & Warehousing; and Health Care & Social Assistance. The nine industries reporting decreases in inventories in October — listed in order — are: Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; Management of Companies & Support Services; Information; Other Services; Finance & Insurance; Utilities; Professional, Scientific & Technical Services; Public Administration; and Wholesale Trade.

Inventories	% Higher	% Same	% Lower	Index
Oct 2011	14	63	23	45.5
Sep 2011	19	65	16	51.5
Aug 2011	21	65	14	53.5
Jul 2011	24	65	11	56.5

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October 2011 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® - Summary

RightOn Inventory — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:21:00 GMT

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING ...

"Business is fairly flat, with a slight increase noted for the month." (Health Care & Social Assistance)
"Sales are increasing slightly, but are still lower than they have been historically." (Public Administration)
"Some slowdown in the last month." (Finance & Insurance)
"Business is steady, with a lot of price competition at the selling end of our business." (Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting)
"The poor economy is creating a drag on expected revenue through the end of this year." (Information)
"Overall, we are still growing, but we are beginning to see some cautiousness reflected in our customers." (Wholesale Trade)

ISM NON-MANUFACTURING SURVEY RESULTS AT A GLANCE COMPARISON OF ISM NON-MANUFACTURING AND ISM MANUFACTURING SURVEYS* OCTOBER 2011
	Non-Manufacturing						Manufacturing
Index	Series Index Oct	Series Index Sep	Percent Point Change	Direction	Rate of Change	Trend** (Months)	Series Index Oct	Series Index Sep	Percent Point Change
NMI/PMI	52.9	53.0	-0.1	Growing	Slower	23	50.8	51.6	-0.8
Business Activity/Production	53.8	57.1	-3.3	Growing	Slower	27	50.1	51.2	-1.1
New Orders	52.4	56.5	-4.1	Growing	Slower	27	52.4	49.6	+2.8
Employment	53.3	48.7	+4.6	Growing	From Contracting	1	53.5	53.8	-0.3
Supplier Deliveries	52.0	49.5	+2.5	Slowing	From Faster	1	51.3	51.4	-0.1
Inventories	45.5	51.5	-6.0	Contracting	From Growing	1	46.7	52.0	-5.3
Prices	57.1	61.9	-4.8	Increasing	Slower	27	41.0	56.0	-15.0
Backlog of Orders	47.0	52.5	-5.5	Contracting	From Growing	1	47.5	41.5	+6.0
New Export Orders	54.0	52.0	+2.0	Growing	Faster	3	50.0	53.5	-3.5
Imports	48.0	47.5	+0.5	Contracting	Slower	2	49.5	54.5	-5.0
Inventory Sentiment	57.5	59.0	-1.5	Too High	Slower	173	N/A	N/A	N/A
Customers' Inventories	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	43.5	49.0	-5.5

* Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business^® data is seasonally adjusted for Business Activity, New Orders, Prices and Employment. Manufacturing ISM Report On Business^® data is seasonally adjusted for New Orders, Production, Employment, Supplier Deliveries and Inventories.

** Number of months moving in current direction.
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