Vendor Managed Inventory, or VMI, is an inventory replenishment strategy in which the supplier monitors and may even physically replenish the customer's stock. When you form a VMI relationship with a provider, they handle the stress of inventory so that you can focus on other aspects of your business.

By letting the right provider manage your inventory, you can invest time in building relationships, increasing sales, and tackling other things that help your business reach long-term success.

Innovation is integral to success today. New or re-branded products and services are meant to fill consumer demand or capitalize on an opportunity in the marketplace. When bringing new ideas or products into reality, businesses must consider the New Product Development process. This process was developed on the back of comprehensive research on products that failed and succeeded.

How to Develop a New Product

The process listed here is recognized as the best practice for bringing concepts to the market. Also known as the Stage-Gate innovation process, has eight crucial steps for successful product development. Keep reading below to learn more about these steps and how to utilize them for your business.

"Warehouse management and logistics face tremendous challenges due to the consistently growing e-commerce sector. Whereas brick-and-mortar store logistics are subject to general regulations (most notably due to business hours), online retailers experience almost no limits when it comes to time and quantities. This is why warehouse logistics has to be flexible as it pertains to time and the capacity to store a wide range of products. It requires space-saving storage options and most notably adequate manpower to process these orders."

In your business, you have a multitude of buy-sell relationships. Wouldn’t having a partner be more efficient and beneficial? With a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) program, you can have just that! Aside from having a close relationship with your supplier, there are a variety of benefits to utilizing a VMI program such as cost savings, forecasting, inventory management and more.