Multi echelon and Inventory Optimization are in fact two separate technologies, but they aretypically bundled together in MEIO applications. Multi echelon planning answers the question”where” inventory should be located, and inventory optimization answers the question “how”much should be maintained in order to meet a certain service level target.While small and large company would both benefit from Inventory Optimization, Multi echelon isless applicable to small companies most especially if it has only few suppliers, wherein the“where” can be obviously answered without even processing the array of information