Help Pls: Statistical Data Analysis.

[CookieMan]

[B]Hey all,

I understand this is wayyy off topic than the regular posts but I am working on this thesis of mine and I needed some further info. [/B]

Thesis name:[COLOR="DarkRed"]A Detailed Investigation on the Importance of Inventory Management, as a Crucial Component of a Company’s Supply Chain System.[/COLOR]

[B]I've gathered the following data and calculated the Standard Deviance and stuff but I need help trying to interpret the data.

Any suggestions would be incredibly helpful guys - I'm looking for anything related to below data that you can tell about the retail company (shop).[/B]

[IMG]http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/members/cookieman-albums-general-picture1738-monthly-cash.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/members/cookieman-albums-general-picture1741-2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/members/cookieman-albums-general-picture1742-shrinkage.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/members/cookieman-albums-general-picture1740-1.jpg[/IMG]

[B]Any interpretations or analytical data would be immensely helpful guys - [I]you have no idea! [/I] A simple explanation as to what all the numbers mean related to the gross values shown in the 1st spread sheet...

If you think you need any additional info to support any analytical conclusions, please do let me know.

Thanks a lot ... in advance.[/B]

EDIT: Guys, I'm looking for help in interpreting the Standard Deviation data, essentially.


Cheers,

[scallybert]

[quote=CookieMan;529869]
[B][...]If you think you need any additional info to support any analytical conclusions, please do let me know. [...][/B]
[/quote]
Ok, there are a couple of things I need to know.
[quote]Thesis name: [B][COLOR=darkred]A Detailed Investigation on the Importance of Inventory Management, as a Crucial Component of a Company’s Supply Chain System.[/COLOR] [/B][/quote]

[COLOR=black]What's Inventory Management, and what's a [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Supply Chain System ?[/COLOR]

I'm sure this isn't rocket science, and once I understand these, we can get all our ducks in a row... ;)

[NosingIn]

Afraid I can't do your homework, but this what i guess the task is...

1. Take a look at the retail sales figures by category and in total and you see the sales are in growth (21k to 23k).

2. Underlying that growth is very variable shrinkage, you can see how variable by the standard deviations

3. So for the company to continue to grow sales it must avoid out of stocks

4. So the challenge is to make sure you have it to sell it, but you can't just sell 4 stamps then order 4 stamps. Thus you need inventory management.

5. You can then model different inventory management approaches - you need to forecast the continued growth in demand (sales) and also take either some sort of average / risk embracing (no allowance for shrinkage) / risk avoidant (i.e. over order and hope you dont run out of space) strategy.

Make sense? Hope that at least starts you off.

[scallybert]

Inadequate inventory -> loss of potential sales.

However, inventory costs you money - esp with perishable goods (eg food wastage).

I'm even less of a statistician than a pilot, but calculating mean and standard deviation allows you to fit a normal distribution curve to your data, and hence estimate things. eg what's the chance of selling more than 5 packs of sandwiches in a day.

(Normal curve is a bell shape, centred on mean, calibrated in SDs on x-axis. AIUI.)

[PsiLo]

From those statistics I can conclude that a dentist would make a lot of money in that area as more money is made from confectionery & soft drinks than anything else.

[trillian]

Well, periferal to that, in the case of our company cashflow is always tight. So it's a constant balance of trying to keep some cash reserves vs ordering stock too far in advance.

It sucks being out of stock and if we had a lot more money to throw around this wouldn't happen but that's the reality we're faced with.

I have no hard data of what loss of revenue occurs when we are backordered on something, some customers will wait and some products will survive better than others in terms of retaining a sale depending on how easy it is for the customer to get it elsewhere, but I tend to think it's always bad to lose a sale because then they get looking at the competition.

Anyway, 'not answering the question I know but it's late and I'm rambling aimlessly. :)

[waveydavey]

[quote=NosingIn;529935]Afraid I can't do your homework, but this what i guess the task is...

1. Take a look at the retail sales figures by category and in total and you see the sales are in growth (21k to 23k).

2. Underlying that growth is very variable shrinkage, you can see how variable by the standard deviations

3. So for the company to continue to grow sales it must avoid out of stocks

4. So the challenge is to make sure you have it to sell it, but you can't just sell 4 stamps then order 4 stamps. Thus you need inventory management.

5. You can then model different inventory management approaches - you need to forecast the continued growth in demand (sales) and also take either some sort of average / risk embracing (no allowance for shrinkage) / risk avoidant (i.e. over order and hope you dont run out of space) strategy.

Make sense? Hope that at least starts you off.[/quote]

Even I understood that, I love it when people speak with authority on their chosen subject. Nice words mate.

[Mart61]

Give up selling "entertainment" and check your figures for the battery & stamps lines for week 2.

:D

Oh and who's nicking your stamps?

[CookieMan]

Thanks guys for the replies.

Would you be able to give any information based on the Standard Deviance figures (data) that you see in the second spreadsheet?



Cheers,

[gorber]

I was a quantitative risk analyst before my current job and that leant very heavily on statistics, but I cannot help you in this case. You should never put any weight, whatsoever, on a statistical analysis with 4 data points. That is the only thing that I could say about your data.

[zoombolt]

Statistics are used as a drunkard uses a lamp post, for support, rather than illumination.