Size, allocate and replenish: the permanent trade-off between tied-up capital and service level.
The domain
Inventory is the most visible variable in a supply chain, and the most misunderstood. In excess, it ties up capital and hides upstream dysfunctions; too thin, it loses sales and strains the customer relationship. This domain tackles the question that governs all the rest: how much to hold, where, and when to replenish, to sustain a service level at the least capital. The answer is never a single number, but a policy, tuned reference by reference, between two opposing forces. Holding stock costs: holding, obsolescence, frozen capital. Not holding it costs too: lost sales, line stoppages, disappointed customers. The right stock is the point where the sum of these two costs is lowest, and it shifts the moment demand, lead times or priorities change.
The domain map
The metrics
Speed of sell-through: cost of goods sold over average inventory.
Trap: a flattering turnover can hide repeated stockouts on the best references.
How many days current stock lasts before it runs out.
Trap: the average hides the extremes; dead and tight stock together give a deceptively healthy figure.
Share of demand served directly from available stock.
Trap: aiming for a hundred percent everywhere ties up capital that very few references justify.
Gross margin earned for every unit of capital invested in stock.
Trap: it ignores speed; always cross it with turnover so as not to reward slow capital.
Share of the tied-up value that holding it costs, per year.
Trap: almost always understated, obsolescence and risk being left out of the calculation.
Demand lost for lack of stock at the moment it appears.
Trap: invisible unless measured at the source; a sale not made leaves no accounting trace.
The video library
A deduplicated, source-checked selection. Every video carries a critical take to guide its use, not a neutral summary.
From knowledge to action
Most chains carry both at once, on different references. Our Inventory & distribution file resets your stock policies, reference by reference, on the cash-service balance that fits you.