7 Best Inventory Control Books Ever Written

Do you want to improve inventory control in your warehouse and need inventory management books? This article will show you the 7 best inventory control books.

Finding Best Inventory Control Books

Many people think inventory management is a clerical task but they're absolutely wrong. According to most inventory management books, achieving effective inventory management requires the examination of all aspects of the supply chain such as,

1. Basic Inventory Control: deals with basic knowledge of inventory management such as inventory forecasting, inventory ordering policy, review cycle, safety stock policy and inventory operations management.

2. Inventory Accuracy: focuses on how to manage and reconcile the difference between the inventory record in the computer system and actual inventory in a warehouse. Inventory accuracy helps demand planners to make a more accurate demand forecast and reduce lost sales.

3. Inventory Strategy: how to formulate a sound inventory management strategy that balances cost versus customer service level for both short and long-term planning.

4. Material Management: how to manage inventory in the manufacturing environment which may include purchasing, forecasting, lot sizing, production planning, and safety stock (this is also called production and inventory management in some books.)

5. Warehouse Management: the good flow of materials inside a warehouse is crucial for modern inventory management. Basic warehouse operations such as cargo receipt, cargo storage and layout planning, order picking, order packing and order shipping are covered here.

6. Warehouse Safety: this subject has become more and more important due to labor and regulatory issues. Modern warehouse safety also includes the use of visual control like in lean manufacturing and the six sigma program.

7. Distribution Management: deals with the delivery of finished product inventory to the end customers including stock and ordering systems. Sometimes, it also includes some aspects of transportation management such as fleeting planning and vehicle routing.

Ranking Factors of Inventory Control Books

To provide readers and inventory professionals with a list of inventory management books that they can use to create a positive change in their organizations, we use these criteria:

- Sales Rank: we pull out the list of inventory management books available on Amazon.com that are related to inventory management and inventory control to ensure that we get the best books on the market. Then we check sales rank to determine how good each book is.

- Categorization: we group the inventory management books based on 7 types of inventory control activities we mentioned earlier.

- Citation Analysis: we conduct citation analysis for the books. Citation count is a factor we use to separate great books from their peers.

- Editorial Decision: we carefully examine the inventory management books and make a final cut.

#The links below are paid links.

Best Inventory Control Books are as below:

  1. Essentials of Inventory Management

  2. Warehouse Management: The Definitive Guide to Improving Efficiency and Minimizing Costs in the Modern Warehouse

  3. World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling

  4. Introduction to Materials Management

  5. Supply Chain Network Design: Applying Optimization and Analytics to the Global Supply Chain

  6. Warehouse Safety: A Practical Guide to Preventing Warehouse Incidents and Injuries

  7. Inventory Accuracy: People, Processes, & Technology

Do you like inventory control books on this list?


References

- Silver, E. A. (1981). Operations research in inventory management: A review and critique. Operations Research, 29(4), 628-645.

- De Koster, R., Le-Duc, T., & Roodbergen, K. J. (2007). Design and control of warehouse order picking: A literature review. European journal of operational research, 182(2), 481-501.

Books We Recommend

Supply Chain Books

Purchasing Book

Operations Management Book

Lean Books

Last review and update: July 5, 2022
About the Author and Editor:
Ben Benjabutr is the author and editor of Supply Chain Opz. He holds an M.Sc. in Logistics Management with 10+ years of experience. You can contact him via e-mail or Twitter.