Continuously update your inventory control parameters: reorder points, order quantities, safety stocks, mins, maxes, lead times.
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Fifteen questions that reveal how forecasts are co…
In a recent LinkedIn post, I detailed four questions that, when answered, will reveal how forecasts are being used in your business. In this article, we’ve listed questions you can ask that will reveal how forecasts are created. […]The top 3 reasons why your spreadsheet won’t work …
We often encounter Excel-based reorder point planning methods. In this post, we’ve detailed an approach that a customer used prior to proceeding with Smart. We describe how their spreadsheet worked, the statistical approaches it relied on, the steps planners went through each planning cycle, and their stated motivations for using (and really liking) this internally developed spreadsheet. […]How to interpret and manipulate forecast results w…
This blog explains how each forecasting model works using time plots of historical and forecast data. It outlines how to go about choosing which model to use. The examples below show the same history, in red, forecasted with each method, in dark green, compared to the Smart-chosen winning method, in light green. […]

Pursuing best practices in demand planning, forecasting and inventory optimization
Smart Posts
Why Days of Supply Targets Don’t Work when Computi…
Blog, Inventory OptimizationCFOs tell us they need to spend less on inventory without impacting sales. One way to do that is to move away from using targeted day of supply rules to determine reorder points and safety stock buffers. Here is how a target days of supply/coverage approach works: […]Supply Chain Math: Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfi…
Blog, Excellence in Forecasting, Inventory Optimization, Operational AnalyticsMath and the supply chain go hand and hand. As supply chains grow, increasing complexity will drive companies to look for ways to manage large-scale decision-making. Math is a fact of life for anyone in inventory management and demand forecasting who is hoping to remain competitive in the modern world. Read our article to learn more. […]Managing Inventory amid Regime Change
Inventory OptimizationIf you hear the phrase “regime change” on the news, you immediately think of some fraught geopolitical event. Statisticians use the phrase differently, in a way that has high relevance for demand planning and inventory optimization. This blog is about “regime change” in the statistical sense, meaning a major change in the character of the demand for an inventory item. […]