Define inventory and provide some examples.

Explain the importance of inventory, types of inventories, and key decisions and costs.

How does inventory affect a firms financial performance?

Define environmentally preferable purchasing or green purchasing.

Define and explain the different types of inventory costs that managers must consider in making replenishment decisions.

How can these costs be determined in practice? How does order cost differ from setup cost?

What is a SKU? Provide some examples in both goods and services.

Explain the difference between independent and dependent demand, deterministic and stochastic demand, and static and dynamic demand. Provide an example of an inventory item for each combination of these demand types (e.g., independent, stochastic, and static, and so on).

Define lead time. What factors affect lead time?

Describe the two different types of stockouts that firms often face. What must be done to prevent them?