Your product has a very short shelf life, customers can be fickle, weather can spoil the goods or delay the shipment and you measure inventory turns by the day and not months or years.

We go out for dinner and take for granted that the items needed for your meal are there in the right quantity, quality, delivery and price. If any of those factors are missing then the restaurant is soon out of business.

I got a chance last week to talk to Pearl Hrabarchuk who has been purchasing for Boston Pizza International Inc for over 20 years. Which inspired me to showcase an industry that often goes unnoticed until something goes wrong.

This post is also my opportunity to mention Gary Newbury, Supply Chain Performance Improvement as he has a lot more information on this and other distribution topics.