WHYS AND EXCESS INVENTORY

Excess inventory is waste--waste of capital, waste of needed inventory space, and waste of warehouse productivity with having to work around it.  Excess inventory is easily identifiable by all the dust that sits on the cartons as it matures into obsolete.  It is a practice of retailers, manufacturers, and distributors.  The impact is exponential across the organization and locations.

Some why questions with excess inventory.  Why does it occur so much when there are better options, such as Inventory Velocity, and the pressure to improve supply chain costs?  Why do these products/materials sit so long in warehouses?  Why are key executives hesitant to take the needed write-offs to dispose/fire sale the products?  

Is this an example of Einstein insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?