There are topics and tools that everyone knows. Everyone has used them or been confronted with them; they are familiar and considered important, but receive no special attention beyond that. In logistics, ABC analysis is one of these topics. It is known and associated with the Pareto principle or the “80/20 approach”, and there are even a few popular books on the subject (e.g. by Richard Koch, albeit not in the field of logistics).
After almost 20 years in logistics, it has become clear to me that although everyone knows the ABC analysis somehow, hardly anyone really masters and understands it. The analysis is part of the standard analyses in logistics system planning, where it is ususally focussed on orderlines or quantities, not so much on product value (product value is the subject of the original ABC analysis according to Dicki). The results of the analysis are used, for example, to determine which items should be placed in fast-moving areas or to check whether AutoStore is a suitable storage system. However, it is regularly used incompletely, incorrectly or even manipulatively . Now that I have been able to observe this in many projects and also regularly hear from participants in my seminars and workshops that some of the aspects we are talking about are completely new to them, I have decided to write a short eBook on ABC analysis and its application in supporting planning decisions in intralogistics. The book is available under the title “Understanding ABC Analysis for Warehouse Design Decisions” and contains everything you need to know about ABC analysis. Without wishing to praise my own work unduly, I believe that there is nothing comparable on the market and consider the book to be almost indispensable for anyone who wants to deal with warehouse planning decisions. Some of the aspects I would like to highlight include
- the dependence of the results of the ABC analysis on the time horizon under consideration,
- the objective assessment of the steepness of the distribution,
- the weaknesses and limitations of the analysis, and
- an overview of the supplementary analyses that should be carried out for certain design decisions.
In addition, there are instructions on how to carry out the analysis with extensive data sets (not with those five sample lines, for which there are plenty of videos on YouTube), an overview of areas of application for the analysis, an outline of the history, tips on interpreting the results and lots of other details. The table of contents can be viewed in both stores (see below).
The book can be purchased and downloaded in our online store.
- The link to the book in the German-language store is https://www.stellenbeschreibungen.de/understanding-abc-analysis-for-warehouse-design-decisions-englischsprachige-ausgabe.html
- The link to the book in the English-language store is https://logistics-academy.com/product/understanding-abc-analysis-for-warehouse-design-decisions/
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