Inventory Manager

Printo Document Services; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

Printo Document Services is seeking an Inventory Manager to optimize stock across PAN India. You will oversee availability, replenishment, and liquidation of slow-moving inventory while coordinating with procurement, warehouses, and sales teams.

The role emphasizes data-driven decisions, SKU lifecycle management, and proactive optimization to balance service levels with working capital. Prior experience in large-scale inventory management is preferred.

Qualifications

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Responsibilities

• Own inventory availability across PAN-India locations, hubs, warehouses and stores.
• Monitor stock levels, safety stock, reorder points, and plan replenishments.
• Identify slow/non-moving inventory and coordinate liquidation or transfers.
• Monitor SKU lifecycle and optimize stock based on demand, seasonality and lifecycle.
• Analyze consumption trends and revise replenishment requirements proactively.
• Maintain healthy working capital by balancing stock availability with investment.
• Coordinate with Procurement, Vendors, and internal teams to resolve inventory issues.
• Develop inventory dashboards and MIS reports with actionable insights.
• Act as central owner of inventory decisions across functions.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Data-driven decisions

Inventory planning

Demand analysis

Problem solving

Cross-functional coordination

Vendor management

Attention to detail

Proactive ownership

Execution and follow-through

Tools

Excel

Google Sheets

BI tools

Job description

Job Description - Inventory Manager | PAN India

Position: Inventory Manager - PAN India

Department: Inventory / Supply Chain

Role Purpose

• The Inventory Manager will be responsible for managing and optimizing inventory across PAN India, ensuring the right stock is available at the right location, at the right time, and in the right quantity.
• The key objective is to maintain high stock availability while minimizing excess inventory, dead stock, and working capital blockage.
• The role requires continuous analysis of consumption, demand patterns, lead times, inventory levels, and SKU performance to proactively increase, decrease, replenish, transfer, liquidate, or discontinue inventory as required.

Key Responsibilities

1. Inventory Availability Replenishment

• Own inventory availability across all PAN-India locations, hubs, warehouses, and stores.
• Ensure critical and fast-moving SKUs are always available and prevent stock-outs.
• Establish and continuously optimize Min / Max, Safety Stock, Reorder Point, and Buffer Stock levels.
• Monitor inventory daily and proactively identify SKUs that are likely to go out of stock.
• Plan replenishment based on consumption, lead time, supplier MOQ, ordering frequency, and demand trends.
• Coordinate with Procurement and Vendors to ensure timely replenishment.
• Monitor inter-location stock availability and recommend stock transfers wherever required.

2. Inventory Optimization

• Analyse SKU-level consumption and inventory trends on a regular basis.
• Proactively increase or decrease stock levels based on changes in consumption and demand.
• Ensure inventory levels are aligned with actual business requirements rather than historical stocking patterns.
• Identify opportunities to reduce excess inventory without impacting service levels.
• Continuously review inventory parameters whenever there are changes in:
• Consumption
• Lead time
• MOQ
• Supplier performance
• Product demand
• Business volume
• Seasonality
• Product lifecycle

3. Slow-Moving Non-Moving Inventory Management

• Identify non-moving, slow-moving, excess, obsolete, and ageing inventory at SKU level.
• Develop and execute liquidation plans for slow and non-moving inventory.
• Work with Sales, Retail, Marketing, Procurement, and Operations teams to accelerate liquidation.
• Recommend stock transfers between locations to improve inventory utilization.
• Identify inventory at risk of becoming slow-moving and take preventive action before it becomes dead stock.
• Establish ageing thresholds and continuously monitor inventory ageing.
• Ensure liquidation actions have clear timelines, owners, and expected recovery values.

4. SKU Lifecycle Management

• Monitor the inventory health of every SKU throughout its lifecycle.
• Identify early warning signals for SKUs moving from Fast Medium Slow Non-moving.
• Proactively recommend:
• Reduction in procurement
• Reduction in Min/Max levels
• Stock transfers
• Promotional liquidation
• Product substitution
• Procurement stoppage
• SKU rationalization
• Prevent unnecessary accumulation of inventory for declining or discontinued SKUs.
• Work with relevant teams before launching new SKUs to establish appropriate initial inventory levels.

5. Demand Consumption Analysis

• Analyse historical consumption and identify consumption trends at SKU and location level.
• Monitor changes in daily, weekly, and monthly consumption.
• Identify abnormal increases or decreases in consumption and investigate the reasons.
• Use consumption trends to proactively revise replenishment requirements.
• Identify seasonal and business-driven demand changes and adjust inventory accordingly.
• Challenge procurement quantities when they are not supported by actual consumption or forecast.

6. Inventory Health Working Capital

• Maintain a healthy balance between stock availability and inventory investment.
• Reduce excess inventory and unnecessary working-capital blockage.
• Track inventory health through metrics such as:
• Stock availability
• Stock-out rate
• Excess inventory
• Slow-moving inventory
• Non-moving inventory
• Inventory ageing
• Inventory turns
• Days of Inventory
• Forecast / consumption accuracy
• Replenishment efficiency
• Establish targets for inventory health and continuously improve performance.

7. PAN-India Inventory Control

• Monitor inventory across all locations and ensure standardized inventory practices.
• Identify location-wise imbalances and optimize stock distribution.
• Ensure inventory is positioned according to actual demand rather than simply maintaining equal stock across locations.
• Coordinate with warehouse, retail, procurement, and operations teams to resolve inventory- related issues.
• Ensure accurate inventory data and investigate discrepancies between system stock and physical stock.

8. Reporting Analytics

• Develop and maintain regular inventory dashboards and MIS reports.
• Provide actionable insights rather than only reporting inventory numbers.
• Prepare reports covering:
• Stock-out risks
• Excess stock
• Slow-moving inventory
• Non-moving inventory
• Inventory ageing
• SKU consumption
• Replenishment requirements
• Inventory turns
• Location-wise inventory health
• Highlight exceptions and recommend corrective actions.
• Track whether recommended actions are completed and measure their impact.

9. Cross-Functional Coordination

• Work closely with:
• Procurement
• Vendors
• Warehouse / Hub teams
• Retail Operations
• Sales
• Finance
• Product / Category teams
• Production / Operations
• The Inventory Manager should act as the central owner of inventory decisions, ensuring all teams work towards the same objective of high availability with optimum inventory investment.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• The Inventory Manager will be measured primarily on:

Availability

• Stock-out %
• Critical SKU availability
• Service level / fill rate

Inventory Optimization

• Inventory value vs target
• Excess inventory %
• Inventory turns
• Days of inventory
• Min/Max accuracy

Inventory Health

• Slow-moving inventory %
• Non-moving / dead inventory %
• Inventory ageing
• Reduction in obsolete inventory

Proactive Management

• % of SKUs identified before becoming slow/non-moving
• Timeliness of corrective actions
• Replenishment accuracy
• Reduction in emergency procurement

Financial Impact

• Working capital reduction
• Value of excess inventory reduced
• Value of slow/non-moving inventory liquidated
• Recovery value from liquidation

Expected Approach

• The person in this role should not simply react to stock-outs or excess inventory.
• The expectation is to identify problems before they happen.

For example:

• If consumption of a SKU is increasing proactively increase the stock/reorder level.
• If consumption is declining reduce future replenishment before excess stock builds up.
• If a SKU is showing early signs of becoming slow-moving take corrective action immediately.
• If a location has excess stock while another location is likely to stock out initiate a stock transfer.
• If a SKU is no longer commercially viable stop replenishment and initiate liquidation.
• The objective is to move inventory management from reactive replenishment to proactive inventory optimization.

Ideal Candidate

• 5-10 years of experience in Inventory Management / Supply Chain / Demand Planning / Procurement.
• Experience managing inventory across multiple locations is preferred.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills.
• Strong understanding of inventory planning and replenishment.
• Excellent knowledge of Excel / Google Sheets; experience with BI or inventory management tools is an advantage.
• Ability to analyse large SKU-level datasets and convert data into actionable decisions.
• Strong understanding of inventory KPIs and working capital.
• Strong cross-functional coordination and vendor management skills.
• Ability to challenge existing inventory levels and make data-driven decisions.
• Should be proactive, detail-oriented, and comfortable taking ownership of inventory outcomes.

Key Competencies

• Analytical thinking
• Data-driven decision making
• Inventory planning
• Demand analysis
• Problem solving
• Commercial understanding
• Negotiation and stakeholder management
• Attention to detail
• Proactive ownership
• Strong execution and follow-through

Core Objective

• Maintain maximum product availability with minimum possible inventory investment.
• The Inventory Manager is expected to continuously answer three questions:
• Do we have enough stock
• Do we have too much stock
• What action should we take now before the inventory problem gets bigger