Inventory Management

At Bose, core values include innovation, the customer, integrity, respect, excellence, and passion. We see this also in how they manage their company inventory as well. Bose uses a system that incorporates concepts from both the Q and p systems of inventory management. Using minimum and maximum inventory levels as well as sales trends to maintain adequate inventory levels at all times.

Bose has an inventory monitoring team that keeps close watch over how much is shipped to each store, sold, and transferred between stores. When inventory levels are at minimum, a report is automatically generated and then sent to the inventory management team. The team then creates a Purchase Order, also known as, a P.O. This order is then sent to the warehouse staff, A.K.A. "pickers", who transfer inventory from the warehouse's storage facilities to pallets, where the products await distribution. The last and final step entails the inventory being loaded onto trucks and shipped to their respective store locations.

Bose® Free Space® 51 Environmental Speakers


Inventory is completed every Monday in the warehouse, and shipments arrive to the stores every Thursday. This inventory process is a perfect example of the P system, in which P, or the time when stock is ordered is fixed at specific intervals, and Q, the amount of stock to be ordered, varies a little more. However, the amount of stock to be ordered does not vary too greatly per shipment because of the specified minimum inventory levels. This aspect is one more closely related to the Q system of inventory management. Therefore the Bose method of inventory management and control is a hybrid of both the Q and P methods. This system of inventory allows for the company to provide the best combination of cost effectiveness in conjunction with overall convenience.