ABC analysis

In materials management, the ABC analysis (or Selective Inventory Control) is an inventory categorization technique. ABC analysis divides an inventory into three categories- "A items" with very tight control and accurate records, "B items" with less tightly controlled and good records, and "C items" with the simplest controls possible and minimal records.

The ABC analysis provides a mechanism for identifying items that will have a significant impact on overall inventory cost,[1] while also providing a mechanism for identifying different categories of stock that will require different management and controls.

The ABC analysis suggests that inventories of an organization are not of equal value. [2] Thus, the inventory is grouped into three categories (A, B, and C) in order of their estimated importance.

'A' items are very important for an organization. Because of the high value of these 'A' items, frequent value analysis is required. In addition to that, an organization needs to choose an appropriate order pattern (e.g. ‘Just- in- time’) to avoid excess capacity. 'B' items are important, but of course less important than 'A' items and more important than 'C' items. Therefore 'B' items are intergroup items. 'C' items are marginally important.

ABC analysis categories

There are no fixed threshold for each class, different proportion can be applied based on objective and criteria. ABC Analysis is similar to the Pareto principle in that the 'A' items will typically account for a large proportion of the overall value but a small percentage of number of items.[3]
Example of ABC class are

Another recommended breakdown of ABC classes:[4]

  1. "A" approximately 10% of items or 66.6% of value
  2. "B" approximately 20% of items or 23.3% of value
  3. "C" approximately 70% of items or 10.1% of value

ABC analysis in ERP packages

Major ERP packages (IFS,Adjutant, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft,Roadmap etc.) have built in function of ABC analysis. User can execute ABC analysis based on user defined criteria and system apply ABC code to items (parts). See detail at external link.

Example of the application of weighed operation based on ABC class

Actual distribution of ABC class in the electronics manufacturing company with 4051 active parts.

Distribution of ABC class
ABC class Number of items Total amount required
A 10％ 70％
B 20％ 20％
C 70％ 10％
Total 100％ 100％

Using this distribution of ABC class and change total number of the parts to 14213.

When you apply equal purchasing policy to all 14213 components, example weekly delivery and re-order point (safety stock) of 2 week supply assuming that there are no lot size constraints, the factory will have 16000 delivery in 4 weeks and average inventory will be 2.5 week supply.

Application of Weighed Purchasing condition
Uniform condition Weighed condition
Items Conditions Items Conditions
　All items 14213 　Re-order point=2 week supply
Delivery frequency=weekly 		A-class items　200 Re-order point=1 week supply
Delivery frequency=weekly
B-class items 400 Re-order point=2 week supply
Delivery frequency=bi-weekly
C-class items 3400 Re-order point=3 week supply
Delivery frequency=every 4 weeks

In comparison, when weighed purchasing policy applied based on ABC class, example C class monthly (every 4 week) delivery with re-order point of 3 week supply, B class Bi-weekly delivery with re-order point of 2 weeks supply, A class weekly delivery with re-order point of 1 week supply, total number of delivery in 4 weeks will be (A 200x4=800)+(B 400x2=800)+(C 3400x1=3400)=5000 and average inventory will be (A 75%x1.5weeks)+(B 15%x3weeks)+(C 10%x3.5weeks)=1.925 week supply.

Comparison of "Equal" and "Weighed" Purchase (4 weeks span)
ABC class No of items % of total value Equal purchase Weighed purchase note
No of delivery in 4 weeks average supply level No of delivery in 4 weeks average supply level
A 200 75% 800 2.5 weeks 800 1.5 weeksa same delivery frequency, safety stock reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 weeksa, require tighter control with more man・hours.
B 400 15% 1600 2.5 weeks 800 3 weeks increased safety stock level by 20%, delivery frequency reduced to half. Less man・hour required.
C 3400 10% 13600 2.5 weeks 3400 3.5 weeks increased safety stock from 2.5 to 3.5 week supply, delivery frequency is one quarter. Drastically reduced man・hour requirement.
Total 4000 100% 16000 2.5 weeks 5000 1.925 weeks average inventory value reduced by 23%, delivery frequency reduced by 69%. Overall reduction of man・hour requirement

a) A class item can be applied much tighter control like JIT daily delivery. If daily delivery with one day stock is applied, delivery frequency will be 4000 and average inventory level of A class item will be 1.5 days supply and total inventory level will be 1.025 week supply. reduction of inventory by 59%. Total delivery frequency also reduced to half from 16000 to 8200.

By applying weighed control based on ABC classification, required man-hours and inventory level are drastically reduced.

The ABC concept is based on Pareto's law.[5] If too much inventory is kept, the ABC analysis can be performed on a sample. After obtaining the random sample the following steps are carried out for the ABC analysis.

the cost per unit.

approximately into three segments, where the curve sharply changes its shape. This indicates the three segments A, B and C.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Manufacturing planning and control systems for supply chain management By Thomas E. Vollmann
  2. ↑ Lun, Lai, Cheng (2010) Shipping and Logistics Management, p. 158
  3. ↑ Purchasing and Supply Chain Management By Kenneth Lysons, Brian Farrington
  4. ↑ Best Practice in Inventory Management, by Tony Wild (2nd Ed., p. 40)
  5. ↑ Pareto's law in this example is that a few high usage value items constitute a major part of the capital invested in inventories whereas a large number of items having low usage value constitute an insignificant part of the capital.

External links