Mark Nudi

Mark Nudi is the Materials Control Manager based in the San Jose, CA office. One of the toughest challenges as a material control manager is to balance customer satisfaction with inventory levels and value. To make this happen Mark has developed several tools over the years. The most recent being the Inventory Forecasting Tool that examines the top 80% of open purchase orders and their value for Semiconductor customers. The tool allows Valin to look at each group or item individually at a reduced percentage, to see if shutdowns, forecast inaccuracy, or a decline in overall semiconductor business may affect the month-end inventory value.

The tool considers 165 items and provides the following information.

The information is combined with 2 years of historic sales data and reviewed a minimum of two times per week and then updated each week with current data. This keeps the inventory levels each month at the minimum required with no over purchases. Using the tool Mark designed, Valin can project the month-end inventory value for these items for the current month and three months in the future.

The tool provides the opportunity to review possible inventory spikes in the coming months. Once the outcome of the formula is reviewed, the best course of action can be determined. Examples include stopping the placement of new purchase orders, canceling, or pushing out deliveries with the supplier. The Inventory Forecasting Tool was especially helpful when Mark discovered that a primary customer’s forecast was 30% incorrect on average over several weeks. This information was passed to the customer and they made corrections. This tool allows Valin to make educated forecasts keeping inventory at the needed levels while satisfying customer needs.