Every stockout that halts a production line, and every overstocked shelf that ties up cash, traces back to the same weak point: how an organisation plans and controls its inventory. Poor visibility over stock levels drives up costs, slows service, and disrupts continuity — which is exactly what this Advanced Inventory Control and Stock Planning Programme from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy is built to fix.

The programme moves from the digital tools and technologies now used to track and control stock, back through the classical planning techniques — demand forecasting, reorder points, safety stock, and valuation methods — that remain the backbone of sound inventory management. By the end, participants will be equipped to set accurate stock levels, tighten control procedures, and lift the operational efficiency of their materials and warehouse functions.

Programme Objectives

By the end of this programme, participants will be able to:

• Apply the core principles of inventory planning and stock management with confidence.
• Forecast future material requirements using accurate, data-driven methods.
• Build control systems that keep stock levels balanced — avoiding both shortages and overstocking.
• Read inventory performance indicators and turn them into improvement decisions.
• Deploy modern digital tools to raise the efficiency of day-to-day inventory operations.

Who Should Enrol

• Warehouse and stock control staff and their supervisors.
• Procurement, supply, and supply chain department employees.
• Material and production planning officers.
• Anyone responsible for inventory planning or control who wants to sharpen their skills.

Module 1: Why Inventory Control Makes or Breaks Operations

• Inventory's role in keeping production and service running without interruption.
• How storage, ordering, and shortage costs eat into operating margins.
• The strategic link between inventory management and overall business performance.

Module 2: Classifying and Structuring What You Hold

• Raw materials, work-in-progress, finished goods, spare parts and strategic stock.
• Classifying items by usage and value.
• Keeping item cards and movement records organized and traceable.

Module 3: Setting the Right Stock Boundaries

• Calculating minimum, maximum and reorder points.
• Sizing safety stock to cover emergencies without tying up capital.
• Building rapid-response policies for unexpected shortages.

Module 4: Forecasting Demand Before You Order

• Quantitative forecasting models, seasonal trends and expert judgement.
• Comparing actual versus estimated consumption to catch drift early.
• Choosing an estimation method based on data availability, suppliers and lead times.

Module 5: Planning Materials the MRP Way

• What MRP does and why it reduces waste.
• Bills of materials, order scheduling and the data MRP needs to work.
• Linking MRP outputs to procurement and production schedules.

Module 6: Keeping Score — Monitoring and Valuation

• Real-time versus periodic monitoring, and the role of manual inventory cards.
• Turnover rate, service level, and shortage or spoilage indicators.
• FIFO, LIFO and weighted-average valuation, and their effect on profit.
• Physical counts, discrepancy handling and corrective reporting.

Module 7: Balancing Cost and Availability

• Economic order quantity (EOQ) and how it minimizes total cost.
• Coordinating inventory decisions with procurement and the wider supply chain.
• Aligning supply with demand to cut delays and improve responsiveness.

Module 8: Going Digital and Sustainable

• Warehouse management systems (WMS) and real-time visibility.
• RFID, barcodes and IoT in modern inventory tracking.
• Smart analytics, machine learning and reducing human error.
• Linking inventory practices to circular-economy and waste-reduction goals.