Two targets, one system, no shared plan.
Commercial is measured on service level and supply chain on working capital, and the two are managed from different numbers. The predictable result is a business that is simultaneously out of stock on the lines customers want and overstocked on the lines they do not.
Fixing it is rarely a system purchase. It is a shared demand signal, an inventory policy that differentiates by velocity rather than treating every line alike, and purchasing driven by measured supplier lead time instead of an assumed one.
What we find in the chain.
One inventory policy for everything
Fast and slow lines carry the same days of cover, which overstocks one and starves the other.
Lead time assumed, not measured
Purchasing plans against a number in the item master that nobody has checked against supplier performance.
Stock invisible across sites
Each branch protects its own stock, so a customer is told a line is unavailable while it sits ninety kilometres away.
Forecast nobody owns
Sales, planning and finance each hold a different demand number and none is accountable for accuracy.
Obsolescence carried at full value
Without an ageing review with a named owner, slow stock is carried until someone writes it off in a bad quarter.
Expediting as a habit
The cost of absorbing planning failures through air freight and overtime has never been measured.
What the engagement actually includes.
Walk the chain
From demand signal to delivery, on site: the warehouse, the planning desk and the buying office. We measure what happens rather than what the policy says.
Segment the portfolio
Lines banded by velocity, margin and criticality, each with its own cover target — because one policy across the range guarantees the wrong answer for most of it.
Rebuild the demand signal
One forecast owned by a named role, with accuracy measured and reviewed, feeding purchasing and production rather than three competing numbers.
Reset inventory policy
Safety stock and reorder points calculated from measured lead time and demand variability, per band, and automated where the data supports it.
Make the network visible
One availability view across warehouses and branches, with transfer rules driven by where demand actually is.
Cost to serve
Delivery, handling and expediting attributed to the customers and lines that cause them — the evidence for changing a minimum order or a delivery frequency.
Measure, segment, reset, hold.
Policy and segmentation can usually be implemented in the platform you already run. These are the components involved.
Ranges observed on Al Jawad engagements. Your targets are agreed in assessment, before the work starts.
Can service improve without more stock?
Usually yes. Most operations hold enough stock in total and hold it in the wrong lines and the wrong locations. Segmentation and network visibility recover service before any increase.
Do we need a new system?
Often not for the first phase. Policy, segmentation and measured lead time can be implemented in most existing platforms; we say clearly if the platform genuinely cannot support it.
How long before service improves?
The baseline takes two to four weeks. Policy changes on the fast-moving band typically show in fill rate within one replenishment cycle.
Who should own the forecast?
A named role with accuracy measured against them — usually in planning, never split between sales and finance with neither accountable.
Start a conversation.
Choose the one that fits where you are. None of them is a sales call. Each is an advisory conversation calibrated to a specific question.