Every supply chain planner wants to deliver high customer service to support revenue growth, but balancing these goals with cost can often feel like a high wire act. Relying on forecast accuracy alone to set optimal inventory levels doesn’t get you there. Fortunately, AI-powered demand modeling systems provide a tried and proven way to get […]

Demand forecasting is tough. Demand forecasting over the entire product life cycle during the course of launch, maturation, and end-of-life is tougher still. This is true for any business with sizable turnover in the product portfolio, but product forecasting in industries like retail, electronics, and aftermarket parts is especially challenging. First, let’s define our terms […]

3 analytical approaches to salvage value and prevent waste Descriptive, predictive and prescriptive: the 3 approaches you can apply to solve any business problem using analytics. For example markdowns. Markdowns are big: what to do with excess inventory? Some statistics from my recent piece: over $2 trillion of inventory in the United States alone — $2,040 billion — $1.43 of inventory […]

The subway system is the lifeblood of New York City, pre-COVID carrying an average of 5.5 million people per day in 6,684 cars across 472 stations. Each station is part of a larger system and operates on a set schedule under one management umbrella. Imagine what would happen if each station optimized its schedule and […]

The 5 secret ingredients to solve for profit, rather than accuracy Customers can be unpredictable. Hardly anything about them is forecastable correctly. Change approach maybe? Prediction errors are everywhere. Over the past 15 years, I met and worked with over 1,000 managers to help them make better decisions every day. First, while at McKinsey as a management consultant; […]

In episode six of Be Ready for Anything, ToolsGroup’s Pre-Sales Manager for Europe, Birger Klinke, talks about what retailers should expect in 2021 and how they can leverage probabilistic forecasting and automation to adjust to a changing marketplace.   Check out the video below.   Or listen and follow on Spotify.   Transcript This podcast […]

KIKO Milano: A New Customer-Centric Era An extremely wide and diversified assortment, colorful offers and safe and high-quality make-up and face and body treatments are distinctive features of Italian cosmetic brand KIKO Milano, founded in 1997. The dramatic growth of the company created additional complexity and the need to find new competitive momentum within a […]

If this challenging past year has taught us one thing, it is the value of connections–not only in our lives, but in supply chains. We saw this right at the start of the pandemic, when parts being manufactured in Wuhan province disrupted car manufacturers’ production lines around the world. Indeed, when customers contact us for […]

In episode five of Be Ready for Anything, hear from George Fowler, Group Vice President at Spinnaker SCS, about how strategic digital transformation initiatives prepare supply chains to successfully withstand significant business disruptions.   Check out the video below.   Or listen and follow on Spotify.   Transcript Katie Van Adzin: Hi everyone, and welcome […]

How Do You Turn a Good Demand Forecast into the Optimum Inventory Plan? Your customers don’t care if you have a great demand forecast. They care if you have the inventory they want when they want it. But carrying too much inventory can reduce profits and might not be practical for some items such as […]

Innovation is core to Boggi Milano. It’s the founding value that enabled the company’s transformation from a small boutique in 1939 to a rapidly growing ambassador of premium Italian style for cosmopolitan men all over the world, with 190 stores in 38 countries. The latest example is the company’s adoption of fully automated supply chain […]

Planning Isn’t Going as Planned? The real world doesn’t follow the rules. Unpredictable behavior in response to macro events creates demand volatility in every link of our global supply chain. As the bullwhip effect demonstrates, it only takes relatively small fluctuations in supply or demand to create massive bottlenecks. Huge, unexpected demand changes can bring […]