CHAPTER 01 · OVERVIEW
A Distributor's Inventory, Rebuilt Around AI
Static min/max rules were quietly costing millions — stockouts on the SKUs that mattered, cash tied up in the ones that didn't. Now the reorder point moves with real demand.
Buyers set reorder points once and rarely touched them again. Fast-moving SKUs stocked out most months; some slow movers sat two years deep. Nobody could say which was which without pulling a spreadsheet and guessing.
Industry
Industrial & MRO Distribution
Operation
Multi-warehouse industrial & MRO parts distributor · 30,000+ active SKUs · thin single-digit margins
Systems in place
Legacy ERP · spreadsheet reorder points · supplier EDI portals
Scope
3 distribution centers in scope
WHAT SOLVING THIS REALLY MEANT
This Wasn't About a Dashboard
The working-capital problem
Every dollar sitting in a slow-moving SKU is a dollar not funding the next truckload of what customers actually order this week.
The stockout problem
A stockout on a fast-moving part doesn't just lose that sale — it teaches the customer to call a competitor first next time.
The margin nobody was watching
Freight, rebates, and slow-mover carrying cost were eating margin line by line, and no single report showed the whole picture.
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT RUNS
Same Three Phases, Every Time
01 · Day 0
Discover
One working day, on-site. We interview buyers and warehouse leads, watch the reorder process happen, and score what we find.
02 · Weeks 1–6
Build
The first system shipped inside the existing ERP — no new platform, no rip-and-replace.
03 · Ongoing
Operate
We tune it, add the next workflow, and keep supplier-risk signals current as real usage comes in.
OPERATING BENCHMARK
30 days
from the first working session to the first AI system live across the network
$8.9M
modeled annual value, once every wave is live
3
Facilities in scope, one team
Annual Value Created
Modeled from the discovery baseline. Value is captured across cost reduction, revenue growth, and risk mitigation — not cost alone.
UP NEXT · DISCOVER