Recently, we posted a video interview with Dr. Michael Watson, of OpEx Analytics and Northwestern University, who controversially questioned whether "optimization" is really needed in the popular software category of multi-echelon inventory optimization (MEIO). (See Do You Really Need Optimization for Multi-Echelon Inventory Planning?)

This week, Dr. Watson is back with more detail, in which he introduces the concept of Multi-Echelon Inventory Calculation (MEIC), which he says can deliver big benefits without actual optimization being required.

This is cutting edge thinking - only from SCDigest and the Supply Chain Television Channel.

Please watch SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore and Watson discuss this provocative point of view, a excerpted from our weekly Supply Chain Video Niews broadcast with CSCMP this week.

You can find Watson's full columns on these topics here: You Don't Need the Optimization in Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization; and How You Should be Using Multi-Echelon Inventory Tools.)