Supply Chain · Case study

A distributor saw the stockout before it happened.

A regional distributor moving thousands of SKUs through multiple locations, where planners learned about problems from angry phone calls.

The problem

Forecasts lived in spreadsheets tuned by one person’s intuition, and broke on every demand spike.
Exceptions — the delayed port, the short shipment — were discovered late and recovered ad hoc.
Nobody could answer “where is it?” without walking three systems.

What we implemented

Demand forecasts that explain themselves — drivers shown, confidence stated, exceptions flagged
Exception agents that detect the delay, assess the impact and propose the recovery for planner approval
Plain-language track-and-trace across ERP, WMS and carrier feeds

Results

Stockouts, caught early

Risk is flagged before the shelf goes empty, with proposed orders ready for sign-off.

Exceptions, recovered fast

Delays are detected, impact assessed and recovery proposed — before customers feel them.

Forecasts that explain themselves

Drivers shown, confidence stated — trusted enough to retire the spreadsheet.

How the engagement ran

Weeks 0–2

Weeks 2–6

iii

Weeks 6–8

Week 8+