Buyer
Orders a group of products from suppliers
Gets the orders over the approval limit, the products AI is unsure of and the supplier minimums that do not fit, and approves, changes or holds them
Supplier orders worked out automatically every day, before a product runs out
We build this system to order for retail chains and distributors. Ordinary software tracks stock and deliveries and works out each order by your rules, and AI reads sales, the season and your promotions, weighs them and forecasts demand for each product as a range. Orders within your approval limit go to suppliers by themselves, and the buyer gets the rest
Who works with it
Head of purchasing
Runs purchasing and the suppliers
Sets the safety stock, the approval limit and which suppliers get orders by themselves. Sees every order and the forecast behind it
Warehouse manager
Runs the warehouse
Sees what arrives and when, a week ahead, and plans the space and the people to receive it
What comes in
What the system reads every day, and what it sends
Three ways out
The path of one order
A product, every daysales, stock, deliveries
AIThe order reviewrules and AI
- Sent to the supplierwithin your limit, or none needed
- Buyera big order, or AI unsurea person decides
- Held for a personthe minimum is far over the needa person decides
Example products
Pick a product and see its stock and the order it gets
Made-up products of a chain’s warehouse. The approval limit, the safety stock and the supplier terms stand for the ones a company would set
School notebooks, four weeks before school starts
Stock, four weeks back and the days this order covers AI
TodayOrder arrivesSafety stockruns out without an order
The order, by your rules Rule
- Forecast for the next 24 days AI
- 528 (432–624)
- + Safety stock
- 120
- − In stock and on the way
- 240
- = Needed
- 408
- Order, in packs of 50
- 450 · $1,575
What AI weighed AI
- MoreSchool starts in four weeks
- MoreLast year sales tripled in the three weeks before school
- MoreStock fell faster each week this month
AI’s reading: demand will keep rising until school starts
Where the order goes AITo the buyer
The order is over your approval limit, so the buyer sees the forecast behind it and approves, changes or holds it
Rule Approval limit: $1,500. This order: $1,575
a person decidesSoftware, AI and a person
Who does which part of the work
Software and AI go through every product every day. A person gets the orders that need one
Ordinary software
Monotonous work with clear rules
- Tracks stock, sales and deliveries on the way, by product and warehouse, every day
- Works out each order from the forecast, the safety stock and what is on the way
- Rounds each order up to the supplier’s pack and minimum order
- Sends orders within the approval limit to the supplier, and the rest to the buyer
- Logs every order with the forecast behind it
AI: understand, weigh and choose
The small decisions on every product
- Forecasts demand for each product from sales, the season, holidays and your promotions
- Gives the forecast as a range, wider when sales are harder to read
- Reads why sales jumped or fell, and says when it cannot tell
- Spots products that sell slower than their stock suggests
- Chooses whether an order can go out by itself or needs the buyer
A person
Every big order and every exception
- The buyer approves each order over the limit
- The buyer decides on sales AI cannot explain
- A person decides when a supplier’s minimum is far over the need
- The buyer negotiates with suppliers, as before
- The head of purchasing sets the safety stock and the limit
How a project starts
Four stages. After each one, you decide whether to go on
First on past sales, then on one category
- Usually firstDiscovery and specification
- In
- Your assortment, your suppliers and how orders are placed today
- You get
- A written specification: which categories come first, what data the system needs, what it will cost and in what order. The document is yours whether or not we build it
- ThenTest on past sales
- In
- Past sales, stock and orders by product
- You get
- The orders the system would have placed, next to the orders you placed and where stock ran out or piled up
- ThenPilot on one category
- In
- One category or one warehouse you choose
- You get
- A draft order for each product. The buyer approves each one while the rules are being set
- When you decideRollout
- In
- The categories and warehouses you choose
- You get
- Orders within the limit go to suppliers by themselves, and the rest go to the buyer. Your team changes the rules
Six questions we ask first
- How many products do you stock, and in how many warehouses or stores? We plan the system and the pilot around it
- How are orders placed today: by hand, at a reorder point, from a spreadsheet? The test on past sales compares the system’s orders with it
- How often do products run out, and do you know which ones? The test looks at those products first
- Do you keep sales and stock history by product? The forecast is built from it
- Do you know each supplier’s lead time and minimum order? The rules work each order out with them
- Which ERP and warehouse system do you use? The pilot connects to them
In our cases
A part of this we have built for a client
No forecast there: the part that sends orders to a supplier and tracks them, running for a client today
Tell us how orders are placed today
A 30-minute call. We will say what your sales and stock data allow and where a project would start