ABC Analysis For Inventory Management: Bridging The Gap Between Research And Classroom

Abstract

ABC analysis is a well-established categorization technique based on the Pareto Principle for determining which items should get priority in the management of a company’s inventory.  In discussing this topic, today’s operations management and supply chain textbooks focus on dollar volume as the sole criterion for performing the categorization.  The authors argue that today’s businesses and supply chains operate in a world where the ability to deliver the right products rapidly to very specific markets is key to survival.  With suppliers, intermediaries, and customers all over the globe, and product lives decreasing rapidly, this focus on a single criterion is misplaced.  The large body of research was summarized based on multiple criteria ABC analysis that has accumulated since the 1980s and recommend that textbooks incorporate their key findings and methods into their discussions of this topic.  Suggestions are offered on how this discussion might be structured.