A gentleman by the name of Mahesh Nagarajan came into our lecture and gave a captivating lecture on supply chain. Not only did I gain incredible respect for him merely on the basis of his presentational skills, but I also actually learned a lot. The first thing I jump to in my memory of this lecture was his somewhat unique examples. In order to convey the risks associated with having too much inventory he compared a blood drive to drug dealers. He put in plain words that if you were collecting blood at a blood drive you would willingly accept carrying 8 units. However, if you were selling illegal drugs on the side of the street and only had 4 secured customers, you wouldn’t want to carry all 8 units “because you have a higher risk of being tazed.”
Mahesh’s ideology behind being “tazed” by the police was a memorable illustration of the risk associated with having too much inventory depending on the costs you can potentially suffer. Not only was this example funny, but it was unforgettable and along with that I will be able to revisit the questions he posed to us in later days. He introduced us to questions such as, “how many units should you buy in anticipation”, and “what are the costs to your business if someone comes in ready to buy your product and you don’t have it.” These questions are incredibly important and the detail behind supply chain and forecasting is something I hadn’t appreciated before Mahesh depicted the inside scoop to our class.