The Wisdom for Warehousing course includes Dr. Frazelle's lecture video at Georgia Tech, a fully edited and illustrated course, richly illustrated course slides, an excerpt from his World Class Warehousing book, video tours of the some of the world's best warehouse operations, and an assessment tool to compare your operations with best practices.

Dr. Frazelle explains that the goal of supply chains is not to minimize inventory, but to optimize inventory. In inventory optimization the answer is often to increase inventory levels to improve business and supply chain performance. The inventory strategy need to define when and why is it optimal to increase or reduce inventory levels.

Honda’s warehouses were operating above 98% capacity, preventing the implementation of a new warehouse management system. By moving excess inventory to an off-site warehouse and reducing utilization to 85%, the company uncovered a large amount of unnecessary safety stock created by poor forecasting. This visibility drove major improvements to its forecasting process, inventory planning, and overall warehouse efficiency.

Warehousing is more than inventory storage, it enables efficient production and supply chain optimization. By supporting economical production lot sizes and seasonal inventory builds, warehouses help reduce changeover costs, improve factory utilization, and balance supply with demand. Examples of RightChain optimizations in food, beverage, and consumer goods companies show how additional storage can generate significant overall supply chain savings.

Reducing inventory and lowering unit costs can create conflicting decisions, since global sourcing and volume discounts often increase inventory. Instead of optimizing individual metrics, supply chain leaders should focus on broader outcomes such as ROIC, perfect order performance, and total supply chain cost. Inventory should be treated as a strategic means to achieve business objectives—not as an end in itself.

Inventory levels are strongly influenced by trust. Poor visibility, missing supplier confirmations, and inaccurate inventory records encourage buyers to protect against stockouts by ordering excess stock. When teams cannot trust supply chain data, they compensate with inventory buffers. Improving visibility and inventory accuracy therefore reduces uncertainty, builds confidence, and helps eliminate unnecessary inventory.

Dr. Frazelle explains how sourcing decisions can determine whether a supply chain succeeds or fails, yet procurement teams may lack visibility into their broader operational impact. Understanding the full supply chain implications of sourcing choices helps professionals navigate critical trade-offs between cost, availability, risk, and service. Cross-functional education can transform procurement from a purchasing function into a driver of supply chain performance.