Applying inventory classification to a large inventory management system

Abstract

Inventory classification aims to ensure that business-driving inventory items are efficiently managed in spite of constrained resources. There are numerous single- and multiple-criteria approaches to it. Our objective is to improve resource allocation to focus on items that can lead to high equipment availability. This concern is typical of many service industries such as military logistics, airlines, amusement parks and public works. Our study tests several inventory prioritization techniques and finds that a modified multi-criterion weighted non-linear optimization (WNO) technique is a powerful approach for classifying inventory, outperforming traditional techniques of inventory prioritization such as ABC analysis in a variety of performance objectives.