In a recent IndustryWeek article titled “The Dynamic Supply Chain,” Mark Pearson of Accenture makes the statement that: 70% of executives who responded to a recent Accenture survey expressed concern about their inability to predict future performance, and more than 80% worried about the overall resilience of their supply chains in the face of unrelenting market challenges.
This reflects a very common problem across industries where there is a demand and supply distortion. Markets determine consumer behavior which in turn reflects buying patterns and inventory management patterns. Historically the retail industry has consistently been obsessed with footfalls and sales.. while left the inventory managers to the floor managers.
While this would be a perfect solution in an ideal world where demand and supply went hand in hand, or if the elasticity of production vs fulfillment was directly proportional which could be churned out by a scientific formula based on historical consumer trends assuming all other factors were constant.
However with changing demographics, changing consumer tastes and advent of modern retail and intrusive media channels amidst the plethora of digital distribution channels including online retail.. inventory management has become too important to be left to only the Inventory shop floor manager.
However the digital challenge is not new .For over a decade, retailers have struggled with getting omnichannel in place…previously, the mere fact that you had a website and a mobile app was enough to be a true omnichannel player.However today an mobile app and a website are hygiene factors.
A capable real time demand and forecasting engine by which businesses can align their inventory with real time demand is the need of modern retail which new start ups like Retigence are trying to solve
Predictive Real Time Analytics 