Checklist for smart replenishment

Consumer products companies are facing increasing business complexity and decreasing profitability. The rise in complexity is linked partly to the supply and distribution of goods, and partly to changing customer needs and sales channels. This checklist helps companies to discover the key pain points related to the replenishment of retail stores and distribution points.

Supply chains are getting longer – in terms of both physical distance and the number of links in the chain – and more vulnerable, exposing them to a wide range of disruptions. Meanwhile, product ranges continue to grow, product lifespans are shrinking and the sustainability of products is increasingly important. Consumers also have ever higher expectations in terms of speed and convenience. Lastly, greater market transparency is putting pressure on margins and blurring boundaries between online and offline sales channels.

As a result of these developments, companies have a growing need for intelligent, fast and automated decision-making to remain relevant and cost-effective. The smart use of data and algorithms is crucial to achieving this.

Anticipating customer demand

The ability to forecast customer demand more effectively, and then to optimize inventory and pricing based on those forecasts, helps companies to deal with these new challenges and maximize margins wherever possible. With the right approach, a business can increase product availability while avoiding building up too much inventory. Smartly anticipating customer demand leads to more sales at higher margins, allowing the company to invest more in innovation. Software vendors are developing increasingly sophisticated methods based on machine learning (ML) and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve forecasting and replenishment. However, the current workload makes it a huge challenge for the intended users – businesses – to optimally utilize these advanced techniques. Companies often lack the necessary analytical competencies internally and the processes are not supported by a central application.

Download the checklist for smart replenishment

Supply Chain Media, together with consultancy firm IG&H, has created this checklist so that companies can see whether they are making sufficient use of the latest techniques. Answer the ten short questions to gain rapid insight into your current approach.

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