Quiz for Prevention of slow-moving and expired stocks

🎥 YouTube Video (for embedding / reference)

Title: Inventory Management in 11 minutes

Link / summary: This video covers inventory fundamentals, stock flow, and techniques such as FIFO, JIT etc. (Top AI Tools List - OpenTools)

→ [Watch on YouTube: Inventory Management in 11 minutes] (you can embed in your module)

Use this video to support the reading content and provoke discussion / reflection questions.

📄 Reading Material (Dual Language – ~2 pages A4)

Below is a suggested layout. You may typeset into two columns (English / Myanmar) or two pages, depending on your design.

Page 1

Title / ခေါင်းစဉ်

Prevention of Slow‑Moving & Expired Stock

စတိုးပစ္စည်း မရွေ့ပြောင်းသော (Slow‑Moving) နှင့် သက်တမ်းကုန် (Expired) စတိုင်များ ကာကွယ်ခြင်း

1. Introduction / နိဒါန်း

English

Inventory that sits too long without selling (slow‑moving) or that expires (in goods with shelf life) ties up capital, wastes space, and leads to losses. Proactive prevention is more effective than reactive clearance.

Myanmar

ရွေ့လျားမှုနည်းသော စတိုးပစ္စည်း (slow‑moving) သို့မဟုတ် သက်တမ်းကုန် (expiry) ဖြစ်သော ပစ္စည်းများသည် ငွေကြေးကို ပိတ်ပင်ထား (capital tied up) ကြောင်း၊ အခန်းအသုံးပြုစရိတ်တိုးစေခြင်းနှင့် ပျောက်ဆုံးမှုဖြစ်စေသည်။ မဖြစ်ခင်က ကာကွယ်ခြင်းသည် ဖြစ်ပြီးနောက် တင်ပစ်ခြင်းထက် ထိရောက်မှုမြင့်သည်။

2. Key Concepts / အဓိကအယူအဆများ

3. Causes / 原因များ (Why Slow / Expiry Occurs) / ဖြစ်ပေါ်မှုအကြောင်းရင်း

• Overordering / အလွန်မှာခြင်း

• Poor demand forecasting / လိုအပ်ချက်ခန့်မှန်းမှုမရိုးရ

• Long lead times from suppliers / ပေးသွင်းသူကနေနှေးသော မှာယူမှုအချိန်

• Lack of stock rotation (FIFO / FEFO not used) / စတိုးလှည့်ပစ်မှုမရှိခြင်း

• Product seasonality or trend changes / ရာသီမတည်ရာ ထုတ်ကုန်များ

• Damages, spoilage / ပျက်စီးမှု၊ ပျောက်ဆုံးမှု

Page 2

4. Prevention Strategies / ကာကွယ်ရန် မဟာဗျူဟာများ

(a) Demand Forecasting & Planning

• Use historical sales data, seasonal trends, market intelligence

• Collaborate with sales, marketing, and procurement teams

(b) Inventory Segmentation

• ABC / XYZ to prioritize attention and resources

• Focus on “A” items and watch “C” items closely

(c) Order Optimization

• Set optimal reorder points and order quantities

• Use Just‑in‑Time or lean inventory approaches where possible

(d) Stock Rotation / Expiry Management

• Implement FIFO or FEFO in storage

• Label items with arrival and expiry dates

• Use scanning / barcode / RFID systems to monitor age

(e) Monitoring & Alerts

• Use inventory management system to generate alerts as items age

• Use an aging report monthly/weekly

• Identify slow movers early and take action (discount, bundle, promotion)

(f) Clearance / Disposal Policies

• Pre‑plan markdowns or promotions for near‑expiry stock

• Return to supplier if contract allows

• Donate or responsibly dispose if beyond use

5. Implementation & Governance / အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ခြင်းနှင့် စည်းမျဉ်းစည်းကမ်း

• Establish SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for stock review, aging, rotation

• Conduct regular cycle counts / audits

• Define roles & responsibilities among departments

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) to track: Inventory Turnover Ratio, % of slow-moving stock, % expired stock

• Continuous improvement: Review monthly, adjust parameters

You can add visuals (e.g., inventory flow diagram, aging bar chart) in your layout to enrich.

❓ FAQs (with Answers) / မေးခွန်းများနှင့်ဖြေကြားချက်များ

1. Q: What is slow‑moving stock?
   A: Stock that does not sell or move for an extended period (e.g. 3–6 months), indicating poor turnover and tying up capital.

2. Q: Why is expired stock particularly problematic?
   A: Expired stock becomes unsellable, leads to complete write-off, regulatory risk (for food/pharma), and environmental disposal costs.

3. Q: What’s the difference between FIFO and FEFO?
   A: FIFO = First In, First Out (use oldest stock first by arrival)
     FEFO = First Expired, First Out (use items closest to expiry first)

4. Q: How can ABC / XYZ analysis help in managing inventory?
   A: It segments inventory by value / variability, enabling focused control over high-value or volatile items, and reducing attention on low-value stable items.

5. Q: When should you mark down or discount slow-moving items?
   A: Before they become obsolete or expire — e.g., when aging reports show > threshold (e.g., over 3–4 months) of no movement.

6. Q: How can an inventory system alert you to near-expiry items?
   A: It can flag items by due‑date thresholds, generate reports, send email / dashboard alerts for items that will expire soon.

7. Q: Should you ever return stock to supplier?
   A: Yes, if contract terms allow. It can reduce losses if accepted before expiry or damage.

8. Q: How often should aging reports or reviews be done?
   A: Ideally weekly or monthly, depending on volume, so issues are caught early.

9. Q: What KPIs should you monitor to prevent slow/expired stock?
   A: Inventory Turnover Ratio, % of inventory older than threshold, % expired stock, carrying cost as % of inventory value.

10. Q: What role do cross‑functional teams play?
    A: Sales, marketing, procurement, operations must coordinate forecasts, promotions, clearance strategies to manage stock effectively.