Product Suite

Supply Chain Glossary - I

Supply Chain Glossary - I

intrinsic forecast method

A forecast based on internal factors, such as an average of past sales. Ant: extrinsic forecast.

1) Those stocks or items used to support production (raw materials and work-in-process items), supporting activities (maintenance, repair, and operating supplies), and customer service (finished goods and spare parts). Demand for inventory may be dependent or independent. Inventory functions are anticipation, hedge, cycle (lot size), fluctuation (safety, buffer, or reserve), transportation (pipeline), and service parts. 2) In the theory of constraints, inventory is defined as those items purchased for resale and includes finished goods, work in process, and raw materials. Inventory is always valued at purchase price and includes no value-added costs, as opposed to the traditional cost accounting practice of adding direct labor and allocating overhead as work in process progresses through the production process.

The branch of accounting dealing with valuing inventory. Inventory may be recorded or valued using either a perpetual or a periodic system. A perpetual inventory record is updated frequently or in real time, while a periodic inventory record is counted or measured at fixed time intervals, e.g., every two weeks or monthly. Inventory valuation methods of LIFO, FIFO, or average costs are used with either recording system.

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