File 03 · Inventory

Inventory, Replenishment & Distribution

Steer the permanent trade-off between tied-up cash, product availability and service level: segmentation, safety stocks, replenishment rules and a distribution network aligned with your strategy.

NatureTrade-off steering
Core tensionCash versus service
Natural next stepSupplier performance

Your challenges

When inventory costs you on both sides at once.

Inventory is both a service insurance and sleeping cash. Poorly steered, it loses on both fronts simultaneously.

E.01

Stockouts and overstock at the same time

Global inventory is high but badly distributed: too much on what sleeps, not enough on what turns.

E.02

Inherited replenishment rules, never revisited

Reorder points and quantities date from another era of the business and no longer track real demand.

E.03

A distribution network by accident

Warehouses, allocations and transfers piled up with history and were never put back on the table.

E.04

An invisible total cost

Holding, obsolescence, transfers, rush orders: nobody consolidates what inventory truly costs.

Our approach

Four movements, from portfolio to rules that run on their own.

We start from your real portfolio and finish with simple, documented rules your teams own.

Phase 1

Segment the portfolio

Cross value, velocity and criticality to differentiate stocking policies.

Phase 2

Size the inventory

Safety stocks and parameters computed on real demand and lead times.

Phase 3

Tune replenishment

Ordering rules that are simple, robust and usable by the teams.

Phase 4

Review distribution

Allocations, transfers and target network assessed at full cost.

Deliverables

The exhibits handed over at close.

Rules that depend neither on one expert nor on a fragile spreadsheet: everything documented and transferable.

Exhibit A

Portfolio segmentation

The product classes, their differentiated stocking policies and the periodic review rules.

Exhibit B

Computed stock parameters

Safety stocks, reorder points and quantities, computed, justified and ready to load into your systems.

Exhibit C

Replenishment playbook

The ordering rules documented, edge cases handled and the routine for refreshing parameters.

Exhibit D

Distribution network review

The full-cost assessment of the current network and quantified evolution scenarios.

Expected benefits

What actually changes.

The same portfolio, before and after the reset. Toggle to compare.

Inventory climbs while service slips
Every planner applies personal recipes
Parameters are stale and nobody dares touch them
Transfers between sites patch allocation errors
Inventory distributed by real value and criticality
Common rules, documented and auditable
Parameters recomputed on a fixed rhythm, as routine
A distribution network assessed at full cost and owned

Who it's for

Three situations where this file is the answer.

This file is the right entry point when tied-up cash becomes a leadership topic.

Cash under pressure

Inventory is your first cash reserve, but nobody knows how much to release without breaking service.

A growing portfolio

References and channels multiply, and the historical recipes no longer keep up.

A multi-site network

Warehouses and transfers accumulated over time, and the network's full cost was never established.

Typical case

What this file looks like in real life.

An anonymized example, representative of the inventory and distribution engagements we run.

Engagement noteRef. D-03
ContextA multi-warehouse trading company whose product range tripled in a few years, with replenishment rules unchanged.
ProblemGlobal inventory rising steadily, stockouts on fast movers and permanent transfers between warehouses to compensate.
EngagementPortfolio segmented, safety stocks and reorder points recomputed, replenishment playbook written, distribution network assessed at full cost.
Expected outcomeDifferentiated stocking rules owned by the teams, inventory rebalanced toward the references that matter and quantified network scenarios for leadership.
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Let's free the cash without breaking service.

One conversation is enough to estimate your portfolio's potential and the path to reach it.

To move between concepts and implementation, see the Inventory & Replenishment Atlas domain and our Procurement & sourcing file.