The Impact of Information Technology and Workplace Practices on Inventory

The Impact of Information Technology and Workplace Practices on Inventory

  • Submitted By: darkpebble
  • Date Submitted: 11/03/2008 3:46 AM
  • Category: Business
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Who Holds the Bag?:
The Impact of Information Technology and Workplace Practices on Inventory
Margaret Y. Hwang
Pomona College
Hahn 109, 420 N. Harvard Avenue
Claremont CA 91711
mhwang@pomona.edu.
David Weil
Boston University
School of Management
595 Commonwealth Avenue Room 520A
Boston, MA 02215
davweil@bu.edu
Presentated at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association,
Chicago, IL, January 1998.
We thank the Alfred Sloan Foundation, the Harvard Center for Textile and Apparel Research for
generous support. We also thank Joyce Cooper and Randy Becker at the Boston Research Data
Center of the US Census Bureau for their help with the Longitudinal Research Database. Work
for this paper was carried out at the Boston Research Data Center of the U.S. Bureau of the
Census. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. All papers are screened to
ensure that they do not disclose confidential information.
Who Holds the Bag?:
The Impact of Information Technology and Workplace Practices on Inventory
In recent years, firms in the U.S. retail sector have widely adopted bar-coding, scanning, and
automated distribution systems in order to create systems of efficient product replenishment.
Retailers place weekly orders based on actual sales and expect to receive replenishment within
very short (4 -5 day) time periods. These changes in the retailing sector have led manufacturing
suppliers in a variety of consumer industries to invest in information technology. As a result,
manufacturers now have more timely information on demand at a detailed product level.
Firms which combine changes in their production process with more timely demand
information from retailers may more closely match production with sales, and thereby reduce
their need to hold inventories. These manufacturers can choose to use information as a...

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