L.L. Bean, Inc. Item Forecasting and Inventory Management

357 Words2 Pages
L.L. Bean, Inc. Item Forecasting and Inventory Management Question 1: How does L.L. Bean use past demand data and a specific item forecast to decide how many units of that item to stock? When there is an established item, L.L Beans uses the trends based on past demand to forecast future sales ; these trends being mostly seasonal and therefore generates enough information to know how much stock is needed when. On the other hand, for new items, which do not have sufficient past demand data, L.L.Beans uses the A/F ratio which is based on past behavior of individuals with the actual demand. Once this is done, LL.Beans must calculate the profitability of the item and the overstock and under stock costs which calculates the optimal amount of the item. Question 2: What item costs and revenues are relevant to the decision of how many units of that item to stock? The manufacturing cost for LL Beans and the price at which the item is sold are relevant to the decision of how many units of that item to stock because with this the profit margin of each item is calculated giving an optimal balance of how much to of the item to stock. Question 3: What information should Scott Sklar has available to help him arrive at a demand forecast for a particular style of men’s shirt that is a new catalog item? Scott sklar needs the forecasted demand and the actual demand of the past new items of LL beans because he does not have access to past demand of the item. Moreover because not enough information is available, Scott Sklar can use the trends of similar products that competitors offer. With these collected information Sklar can analyze and find a trend in particular items. Question 4: What should L.L. Bean do to improve its forecasting process? The company needs accurate data of each item proposed to have better business decisions. These data include a better
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