Business Challenge:

The client is a leading retail giant in the GCC with multiple stores and warehouses across geographies and a large product portfolio spanning departments like FMG, Electronics, Clothing, Household products, etc. To overcome opportunity loss due to stockouts and reduce excess inventory levels, the client sought an organized reporting framework to track their inventory, replacing their sub-optimal inventory management system. The client needed to design and develop an advanced BI dashboard with an exhaustive view of the current stock status of stores, warehouses, product categories, and SKUs. They also aimed to streamline inventory management using scientific techniques and improved methods to assess their stock levels.

TurnB Approach:

TurnB comprehended the client’s inventory management methodologies involved in procurement, internal transfers, warehousing, etc., and incorporated an approach to develop a custom framework to optimize inventory management.

• Gained clarity on data capturing mechanisms deployed at each stage of stock movement.
• Extracted purchase, transfer, and other stock-related data available in various data sources.
• Performed exploratory data analysis on stock-related datasets and treated various data discrepancies due to improper data capturing and exception cases.
• Identified SKU inventory planning factors like current stock, active days, supplier lead days, burnout days, re-order level, stock in transit, etc., and revamped the calculations based on identified factors and logics backed by inventory standard techniques like FIFO.
• Designed and developed an analytical data layer in the client's environment and enabled automated scheduled updates for the analytical datasets to refresh with real-time data.
• Identified top-performing SKUs from each product category based on demand and revenue contribution and flagged top-performing SKUs in red zones like stock-outs, on the verge of stock out, etc.
• Designed metrics to monitor and assess the current inventory level in-house and in-transit, and KPIs were designed to shed light on various inventory challenges such as stock-outs, deadstock, excess stock, slow-moving, etc.
• Separate dashboard views for users at different levels; from top management to store category buyers were designed and developed.
• Provided various provisions in the dashboard to deep dive into the SKU segments based on sales performance, seasonality, procurement types like central, local, overseas, etc.

Implications:

• The dashboard enabled business users and strategic planners to analyze various metrics across different dimensions and make informed decisions considering the inventory levels.
• Timely actions on top SKUs that were out of stock or on the verge of stock out resulted in minimizing opportunity loss.
• Non-moving and excess stocked SKUs in each location were exposed, and inventory levels were reduced by clearing excess stock.
• Revamped inventory calculations enabled efficient stock replenishments through informed reordering and internal stock transfers.
• Logical calculations deployed in the reports were used in other operational areas like LPO preparations, supplier negotiation, reordering, etc.

The shift to an advanced BI reporting framework enabled the client to better monitor their inventory and optimize it through improved tracking of stockouts, deadstock, slow-moving, and excess stock. This, in turn, reduced significant loss of sales and optimized inventory cost.