We Turn Insight Into Impact.
Here’s what that looks like in action.
Omnichannel Inventory Allocation Optimization
Challenge:
Our client, a large retailer, faced significant challenges in optimizing inventory deployment across stores and e-commerce channels. Excessive early inventory shipments to stores left the Distribution Center (DC) understocked for timely online order fulfillment. This imbalance strained operational resources in both the DC and stores, leading to costly, inefficient fulfillment processes, longer delivery lead times for online customers, and lower overall customer satisfaction.
Solution:
MontWave identified the primary factors causing inaccuracies in e-commerce demand forecasting during peak periods. By refining seasonal measures and promotional forecasting for e-commerce, we optimized inventory allocation, ensuring adequate reserves were held for online sales.
Results:
50% reduction in number of units and orders picked from stores for online orders, significantly reducing repetitive work in stores and enabling faster, more efficient fulfillment directly from the DC.
50% reduction in online order delivery lead time, resulting in exceptional customer satisfaction and positive feedback from online customers.
Reduced pressure on store and DC employees during peak seasons, improving their overall work experience and productivity.
Inventory Allocation Software Customization
Challenge:
The client’s Inventory allocation software struggled to react rapidly to the demand of highly seasonal or trendy products, often resulting in lost sales, overstock in certain locations, and understock in others.
Solution:
MontWave collaborated closely with the client’s internal IT department and the software vendor to identify the root causes of forecast inaccuracy. We developed and implemented new functionalities within the software to strengthen reactiveness to changing demand trends.
Results:
Improved forecast accuracy by at least 40%, enabling more reliable inventory planning and decision-making.
Reduced lost sales by more precisely anticipating demand, ensuring the right inventory was available at the right locations at the right itme.
Decreased manual interventions by unifying efforts within a dedicated inventory allocation team, enhancing process efficiency.
Change Management and Team Building
Challenge:
Our client faced significant challenges in integrating a new inventory allocation system. They struggled to understand the system’s functionalities, which prevented them from using it to its full potential. This led to a lack of confidence within the company regarding the system’s ability to support accurate forecasting and inventory allocation.
Solution:
MontWave collaborated with stakeholders across IT, operations, and merchandising to demystify the software, providing training for decision-makers across multiple departments with diverse backgrounds to understand its capabilities, use it efficiently, and enhance its performance by providing informed feedback.
A central part of our approach was the development of an in-house analytics team capable of operating and adapting the inventory allocation software to the evolving business needs of our client long after our engagement had concluded.
Results:
Successful integration of inventory allocation software within two years, fully customized to client needs.
A new in-house analytics team equipped to manage and optimize software’s functionalities independently, ensuring sustainable system use and continuous improvement.
Enhanced employee confidence and cross-departmental skills, resulting in smoother software adoption and fostering a proactive, data-driven approach to operational decision-making.
Discovering Data Integrity Issue
Challenge:
Our client, a large retailer, faced significant obstacles with forecast accuracy and ensuring adequate inventory deployment at the right time across stores. Their inventory allocation process was lagging behind by weeks, requiring extensive manual override to adjust allocation quantities. This placed considerable pressure on the inventory allocation team, especially given the short lifecycle and highly seasonal nature of their products. Additionally, human errors were inevitable, leading to frequent overstocking in some locations while causing understocking in others.
Solution:
MontWave conducted an in-depth analysis and continuous monitoring of sales history and forecast data over several weeks. This investigation led to the discovery of a critical data integrity issue that impacted nearly 60% of the client’s data. Working closely with the client's IT team, they implemented the necessary corrections to stabilize data input and streamline forecasting processes.
Results:
30-50% improvement in forecast accuracy across various product categories.
30-50% improvement in inventory allocation accuracy.
Reduced workload for the inventory allocation team, allowing them to focus on strategic decision-making.