Short answer
Inventory planning balances supply, demand, lead times, and service goals to set appropriate stock levels. This catalog progresses from maintaining planning inputs, to independently setting inventory positions, to shaping policy across connected locations or categories.
About Inventory planning
Balances supply, demand, lead times, and service goals to set appropriate inventory levels. Effective inventory planning makes assumptions and tradeoffs visible while responding to changes that can create shortages, excess, or misplaced stock.
Use this competency for
- Roles that set or recommend inventory levels using demand, supply, lead-time, and service information.
- Work that reviews stock exposure and changes replenishment or allocation plans.
Do not use this competency for
- Roles that only count, store, or move inventory according to fixed instructions.
Important distinctions
Capacity planning
Capacity planning matches workload to available processing resources. Inventory planning sets stock positions across supply, demand, lead times, and service goals.
Logistics coordination
Logistics coordination manages the movement of goods or resources. Inventory planning decides what stock should be available, where, and when.
Expectations by level
IC1
Maintains inventory inputs
Maintains defined inventory planning inputs with guidance. Applies established replenishment rules, checks basic data quality, and flags visible exceptions in their assigned scope.
Observable behaviors
- Updates stock, demand, supply, and lead-time inputs from agreed sources.
- Applies established replenishment or allocation rules.
- Flags missing data, unusual movements, or a likely stock exception.
Examples
- Finds that a lead-time input is outdated and holds the recommendation for review.
- Identifies that expected supply will not cover planned demand and raises the exception through the defined path.
IC2
Plans inventory positions
Independently plans inventory for a category, location, or defined network segment. Reconciles demand and supply changes, tests assumptions, and recommends responses to shortage or excess risk.
Observable behaviors
- Sets inventory recommendations from demand, supply, lead-time, and service assumptions.
- Investigates material differences between plan and actual movement.
- Tests how changed assumptions affect shortage and excess exposure.
- Documents the tradeoff behind replenishment or allocation decisions.
Examples
- Revises a replenishment plan after supply timing changes and explains which locations face the highest exposure.
- Investigates slow-moving stock and changes future orders after confirming the demand assumption no longer holds.
IC3
Shapes inventory policy
Leads inventory planning across connected categories, locations, or channels under uncertain conditions. Sets decision policies, resolves competing service and exposure needs, and improves planning practices others use.
Observable behaviors
- Aligns planning assumptions across teams that own demand, supply, and service decisions.
- Evaluates how allocation choices shift exposure across the network.
- Defines decision rules for recurring shortage and excess conditions.
- Creates reusable scenarios and review triggers for inventory decisions.
Examples
- Designs an allocation policy for constrained supply that makes service tradeoffs visible across locations.
- Finds that separate local plans create excess in one location and shortage in another, then establishes a shared review.