The benefits of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) to both customers and suppliers are clear (see Why Do VMI?). But still, it is an important undertaking for any company and executives naturally have concerns.

Common Customer Concerns

Customer concerns often include such questions as:

• Will I lose control of my inventory?
• Will the supplier try to take advantage of us or put their goals above ours?
• Will the supplier's system really handle my needs?
• Will the supplier's system be reliable?
• Will VMI be expensive for us?
• Our business system is difficult to work with - will it be able to share the information required for VMI?
• Will sensitive information like sales, usage, or inventory figures be kept confidential?

Learn how a good VMI solution addresses customer concerns >

Common Supplier Concerns

Supplier concerns often include such questions as:

• Will it be a huge effort to implement VMI?
• Our IT department is already over-worked - how will they have the time to implement a new program and maintain the IT relationships with our customers?
• Will my cost to operate VMI get out of hand?
• Will we get customer resistance?
• Will the system actually cause customer dissatisfaction by not working well?
• Will we see tangible results in the short term? Or do we have to get a critical mass of customers on board first?
• We struggle with our own inventory management. What makes our customers think we can manage theirs better than they can when we have our own issues?
• Will we need to 'own' our customers' inventory? (i.e. does VMI imply consigned inventory?)
• Will I have to take responsibility for "dead" inventory that has already accumulated in my customers' warehouse?

Learn how a good VMI solution addresses supplier concerns >

Beyond the Basics - Learn About Datalliance VMI

Now that you have a good understanding of the basics of VMI, you might want to:

Learn about the Datalliance VMI solution >

Read some Datalliance VMI success stories >