Businesses use a lot of data to guide their inventory management decisions. Information can be used to determine how much product should be kept on hand. Inventory managers can use data to make smart projections on how quickly items will be moved. For example, consumer products manufacturers and distributors know that business will spike during the holiday shopping season, so they adjust their inventory management practices accordingly. However, while something like the holiday season is easy to predict, many unforeseen events can have just as large of an impact on inventories, and businesses must be prepared. 

According to an article in the Mississippi Business Journal, unseasonably cold weather has had a seismic effect on meat distributors. While this is typically the time of year when families purchase large quantities of meat and begin summer barbeque season, temperatures in recent weeks have led to numerous canceled cookouts, which means meat isn't being sold at the initially predicted rate. 

John Riley, an agriculture economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, spoke with the news source about this phenomenon, indicating that meat grilling this spring is far below where it normally is at this time of year. 

"No one wants to be grilling in the cold standing over a nice rib eye," he said. "Normally, we have had the grills cranked up for a number of weeks." 

He went on to say that many organizations in the meat industry are running into issues due to an excess of inventory. In instances like this, whether the product in question is meat or anything else that could be affected by unexpected circumstances, organization is crucial. Data must be updated in real time so inventory clerks have a sense of how much product will be moved based on current conditions, not standard projections. Inventory management software can help ensure these issues are mitigated.