Advanced Warehouse Inventory Optimisation Training Course

Course overview

Warehouse inventory performance is often constrained by decisions made in isolation: replenishment settings are changed without checking supplier variability, slotting is redesigned without considering picking profiles, and cycle counts are planned without targeting the sources of record error. The result is familiar—stockouts alongside excess inventory, congested pick faces, urgent transfers, unreliable availability promises, and working capital tied up in slow-moving stock. This course addresses the analytical and operational methods needed to optimise inventory across receiving, put-away, storage, replenishment, picking, counting, and returns.

Participants learn to segment SKUs using ABC-XYZ and velocity analysis, set service-level-driven safety stock and reorder parameters, model demand and lead-time variability, and establish practical min/max, reorder point, and replenishment policies. They examine inventory accuracy through root-cause analysis, design risk-based cycle-count programmes, and use slotting, cube utilisation, and travel-distance analysis to improve warehouse productivity without damaging stock accessibility. The programme also covers dashboard design, exception management, obsolete-stock controls, and governance for master-data and parameter changes.

Instruction combines worked calculations, warehouse data analysis, facilitated operating-model discussions, and case-based decision exercises. Participants use structured templates to analyse SKU data, test inventory-policy scenarios, and prioritise improvement actions. Each participant leaves with a warehouse inventory optimisation action plan containing a segmented SKU strategy, proposed parameter changes, inventory-accuracy controls, KPI definitions, and a phased implementation roadmap that can be adapted to their own site.

The course is designed for experienced warehouse, inventory, supply chain, and planning professionals who need to improve service, stock accuracy, space utilisation, and inventory investment through disciplined analysis and repeatable controls.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Segment SKUs using ABC-XYZ, velocity, margin, and criticality criteria to define differentiated inventory policies
• Calculate safety stock, reorder points, and order quantities using demand variability, lead-time variability, and target service levels
• Configure min/max and replenishment parameters for reserve-to-pick-face and supplier-to-warehouse flows
• Diagnose inventory record inaccuracies using transaction tracing, Pareto analysis, and root-cause categorisation
• Design a risk-based cycle-count programme with count frequencies, tolerance rules, recount procedures, and accountability controls
• Evaluate slotting alternatives using pick frequency, cube movement, compatibility constraints, and travel-distance analysis
• Build an inventory KPI dashboard covering availability, inventory turns, ageing, accuracy, replenishment compliance, and dead stock
• Produce a warehouse inventory optimisation action plan with quantified opportunities, owners, milestones, and governance routines

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Warehouse Managers — who must improve service levels, labour productivity, space use, and stock control across warehouse operations
• Inventory Control Managers — who own record accuracy, cycle counting, reconciliation, and inventory-policy compliance
• Supply Chain Managers — who need to balance working capital, fulfilment performance, and network inventory decisions
• Demand and Supply Planners — who translate forecasts and lead times into replenishment parameters and stock targets
• Distribution Centre Operations Managers — who need to reduce pick-face shortages, emergency replenishment, and avoidable travel
• WMS Super Users and Business Analysts — who configure, monitor, and improve inventory-related system rules and exception reporting

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in a warehouse, distribution centre, inventory control, replenishment, or supply planning role. They should understand core terms such as SKU, lead time, safety stock, reorder point, cycle count, inventory accuracy, and inventory turnover, and be comfortable working with operational data in spreadsheets. Familiarity with a WMS or ERP inventory module is expected, whether SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or another platform. Participants do not need programming, advanced statistics, or prior optimisation-software experience; calculation methods and templates are worked through during the course.

Training methodology

The programme is delivered through instructor-led workshops, calculation walkthroughs, warehouse-data exercises, and team-based operating scenarios. Participants work with realistic SKU, demand, lead-time, location, and count-variance datasets to calculate policies and test trade-offs between availability, cost, and labour. Case discussions examine common failures such as phantom stock, pick-face depletion, excessive safety stock, and poor parameter governance. Each day closes with a practical output, culminating in an individual application plan for a selected warehouse or inventory-control challenge.

Course outline

Day 1: Inventory strategy, segmentation and performance diagnosis

• Warehouse inventory cost, service, capacity, and labour trade-offs
• ABC-XYZ segmentation using value, velocity, and demand variability
• Criticality and customer-service classification for differentiated policies
• Inventory profile analysis by stock status, ageing, and movement history
• Core warehouse inventory KPIs and metric definitions
• Pareto analysis of stockouts, excess stock, and transaction exceptions
• Data-quality checks for SKU, location, unit-of-measure, and lead-time fields

Workshop: Participants analyse a warehouse SKU dataset and produce an ABC-XYZ segmentation, baseline KPI pack, and prioritised opportunity list.

Day 2: Service-level-driven inventory policy and replenishment settings

• Demand variability measures and forecast-error interpretation
• Lead-time variability and supplier reliability effects
• Safety-stock calculations for independent-demand items
• Reorder point design using demand during lead time
• Min/max policy design and review-period selection
• Economic order quantity assumptions and practical constraints
• Service-level selection by SKU class and customer promise

Workshop: Participants calculate safety stock, reorder points, and min/max settings for a mixed portfolio and compare service and inventory scenarios.

Day 3: Warehouse execution, slotting and pick-face replenishment

• Reserve storage and forward-pick-face inventory architecture
• Slotting analysis using pick frequency, cube, weight, and compatibility
• Travel-distance and replenishment-labour analysis
• Pick-face sizing and days-of-supply calculations
• Dynamic versus fixed location assignment rules
• Replenishment trigger methods and task prioritisation
• Handling constraints for hazardous, temperature-controlled, and high-value stock

Workshop: Participants redesign a pick-face layout and replenishment logic, producing a slotting recommendation and labour-impact estimate.

Day 4: Inventory accuracy, cycle counting and exception control

• Sources of inventory-record error across receiving, put-away, picking, and returns
• Transaction-trace analysis and inventory-adjustment classification
• Risk-based cycle-count frequency by value, velocity, and error history
• Count tolerances, blind counts, recounts, and approval workflows
• Root-cause analysis using five whys and fishbone diagrams
• Physical stocktake planning and reconciliation controls
• WMS exception queues and inventory-control escalation routines

Workshop: Participants investigate a simulated inventory-accuracy failure, construct a root-cause tree, and design a cycle-count control plan.

Day 5: Governance, dashboards and implementation planning

• Inventory dashboard design in Power BI and spreadsheet reporting
• Inventory turns, days on hand, fill rate, and ageing KPI interpretation
• Dead-stock, slow-moving-stock, and excess-stock disposition controls
• Master-data governance for replenishment and location parameters
• Parameter-change approval, testing, and audit trails
• Cross-functional review routines with procurement, planning, finance, and operations
• Phased optimisation roadmaps and benefit-tracking methods

Workshop: Participants complete and present a warehouse inventory optimisation action plan with KPI targets, parameter changes, control owners, and a 90-day roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

SAP Extended Warehouse Management, Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud, Microsoft Excel Solver, Microsoft Power BI

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions