From an operational perspective, the primary goal of the materials management organization in a maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) environment is to provide unflinching material support to plant maintenance and production. In other words, have the right parts at the right place at the right time.<br><br>Entry of sales information. Most systems allow you to enter inventory codes either manually or automatically via a bar-code scanner. Once the inventory code is entered, the systems call up the standard or sales price, compute the price at multiple quantities and provide a running total. Many systems make it easy to enter sales manually when needed by letting you search for inventory codes based on a partial merchandise number, description, manufacturing code or vendor.<img class='alignright' style='float:right;margin-left:10px;' src='http://www.morronegrito.travel/global/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DSC02603revised.jpg' width='262' alt='what is inventory management meaning'/><br><br>In the example above, we use the following formula: (On Hand Inventory + Purchase Order Receipt) - (Unshipped Customer Orders + Forecast) = Net Inventory. Notice what happens in Week 6. The Net Inventory is negative, projecting <a href="http://www.confianzit.com/cit-blog/openerp-inventory-management-software/">open source warehouse management</a> that we will be out of inventory. In this case, you should expedite the Purchase Order Receipt that is scheduled for week 7. Ideally, it should arrive in week 5 or 6, depending on your desired Safety Stock level.<br><br>The model shown on the next page (see Figure 1) may look complex, but essentially all that is required to implement an effective Integrated Inventory Management program is an understanding of basic inventory management processes, combined with an effective and disciplined application of associated best practices. With a good grasp of the underlying principles involved, a commonsense approach to implementation and a healthy dose of practice, almost anyone should be able to make prudent decisions about the best way to manage their inventory.<br><br>As mentioned earlier, the cornerstone of the Integrated Inventory Management model is data integrity. This by no means implies that a program cannot be started without 100 percent complete and accurate information. In fact, many of the work processes incorporate data collection, analysis and correction. However, some level <a href="http://www.confianzit.com/cit-blog/openerp-inventory-management-software/">inventory management open source</a> of data availability is essential in order to embark on this journey.<br>