DC Velocity - August 2018

T ec h no l o g y

32 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
nel [in particular] have become a
huge burden for managing supply
chains.”
Those disruptors are making
forecasting more difficult too—and
if your forecast isn’t right, your
inventory won’t be right, adds
Patty McDonald, global solu-
tions marketing director, Retail
Solutions Division, for Dallas-
based Symphony RetailAI, which
provides artificial intelligence-en-
abled technology solutions for
retailers and consumer packaged
goods (CPG) manufacturers. She
says many of the problems sur-
rounding forecasting replenishment
and inventory management stem from
retailers’ tendency to have different plat-
forms and point solutions for managing
inventory in different channels, which
makes it difficult for them to get a clear
view of inventory so that they can make
good stocking decisions and, ultimate-
ly, provide the best possible customer
service.

“You can’t do [any of] that if you
can’t see your inventory,” McDonald
explains. “It seems simple to say that,
but a lot of what we see is that customers
manage inventory in different systems.
… If your e-commerce orders come into
a separate system from your brick-and-
mortar stores, how will you effectively
manage inventory across channels? If
there is not enough inventory in the
warehouse, then you must determine
priorities. It requires knowing the total
picture.”
The best way to improve the picture
is to make sure there is a common and
real-time view for managing invento-
ry and by implementing solutions that
promote the fluid flow of information
between systems, say technology pro-
viders such as McDonald, Salmasi, and
others.

What follows are some ways to make that happen.

TACKLE ONE ISSUE AT A TIME

The advent of e-commerce—and along with it, trends such as buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) and buy online, return in store (BORIS)—has complicated the inventory management process by increasing the number of channels retailers must manage. Organizations trying to get a better handle on the problem often find themselves wondering where to begin: How do I make sure I have enough in-store inventory to meet BOPIS demands? What is the best way to manage BORIS services?

The key is to tackle one issue at a time, says Nick McLean, CEO of OrderDynamics, a provider of cloud-based order management technology solutions based in Richmond Hill, Ontario.