Effective management of finished product inventory is quite essential for running a business efficiently and profitably. Inventory strategies and decisions become particularly important in businesses where inventory costs form a sizeable part of total marketing costs.

Carrying inventories becomes inescapable in most businesses, because the producing activities and consuming activities take place at different times, in different locations and at different rates. Inventories are made up of several elements: operational stocks kept for meeting the ready demand at different consumption centers. Some stock will be in transit at any given point of time, while other stock will be awaiting shipments. Finally, there are kept for meeting emergencies. All these make up the total inventory.

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