Software to fine-tune inventories

Another BusinessWeek article (yes, I am biased in my reading).

Liked it because it combines all my favourite topics:

1. A business problem - in this case, the amount of all the different types (40,000 in this case!) of spare parts to be held in inventory.
2. A technology solution - powerful software with algorithms that will do this for you!

I shouldn't call it a 'technology solution.' The technology is only used to 'enable' the solution. Strong understanding of the business problem at hand is required first, and then of course, the technical bit.

The solution - using databases, statistical models, and forecasts - reminded me of a 2nd year elective at IIM Lucknow called 'Quantitative models in transportation and telecomunication' (no prizes for guessing that I didn't do well in that particular course!) taught by a gentleman named Prof. Y K Agarwal.

This one's for Prof. YKA!