Sales and operations planning

Wholesaler S&OP Without All the Work

Improve your forecast and lead-time accuracy with Tiltmeter®, our patent-pending technology that automatically detects demand and supply changes faster than your ERP.

Sales and branch managers are requested to review a handful of SKUs monthly with significant changes in sales so the ERP forecasts can be adjusted appropriately and quickly.  This significantly reduces lost sales and prevents dead stock.  That's smarter S&OP.

How Fast Are You Reacting To Demand and Supply Changes?

We have a hunch it could be faster.

Optimal inventory decisions rely on accurate forecasts and lead times, but most ERPs take at least six months to fully react to significant changes in demand and supply.

This slow-response time causes blind spots for you. We know from our analysis of wholesale distributors across North America that an average of 70% of your SKUs sell to just one or two customers. If you lose that customer, your inventory performance can tank without the appropriate response time. If you gain a customer buying a disproportionate amount of a SKU, you may experience stockouts until you adjust.

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Curious if the speed of demand and supply changes are one of your inventory blind spots?

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Smart Wholesaler Sales and Operations Planning Starts Here

Quickly detect demand and supply changes to avoid expensive oversights.

Tiltmeter increases the speed your existing purchasing system reacts to demand and supply changes for hundreds of thousands of SKUs across multiple locations.

The rapid alert system in Tiltmeter automatically alerts your team and requests validation of significant changes. Buyers can then adjust inventory settings based on the new forecasts to reduce lost sales and dead stock.

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Proactive demand and supply monitoring

Automatically monitor large changes in demand and supply.

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Timely decisions

Detect significant demand swings in as little as 30 days for faster response and decision-making to market dynamics, allowing you to mitigate potential stockouts or overstock before they happen.

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Address customer losses faster

Get alerted when large customers stop buying to avoid purchasing items no longer in demand.

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Lead-time detection

Detect when a key supplier is shipping much later or faster than normal. Tiltmeter sends a revised lead-time number to help ensure you have what you need in stock – and it automatically adjusts the lead time in your ERP.

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Supply chain consulting 

Our experienced team of supply chain analysts is by your side to help you analyze Tiltmeter data outputs and make the most impactful data-driven decisions to reduce lost sales, stockouts, and dead stock.

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Analysis

Our supply chain analysts review your data outputs from the Tiltmeter integration and make recommendations for higher accuracy forecasting and lead times.

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Data visualization

By breaking down the most important findings from billions of analyzed rows of your data, we uncover your blind spots and trend your improvement using visualization tools.

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The result? Inventory process improvements that increase your profit margin.

Get More from Your ERP Without the Headache

Disruption, expense, and risk of failure make replacing your ERP purchasing module with a big supply chain planning system an unnecessary decision.

 

Tiltmeter is a hassle-free technology that integrates directly with your existing ERP.

No disruption

Tiltmeter implements within a month rather than requiring a half-year (or even multi-year) software implementation of a full ERP purchasing system.

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Less expensive

Replacing your ERP purchasing with a new supply chain planning system takes years to realize a return, if ever. Tiltmeter, however, costs a fraction of the full system, saving you tens of thousands of dollars and months of frustrating implementations.

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No learning curve

Your buyers can continue their workflow without disruptions. They keep using the ERP they already know and get better data to make more informed, proactive decisions.

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Onboarding Is Easy

01
Connect your ERP to Tiltmeter with an API connection
02
Run the analysis

Tiltmeter Demand analyzes customer purchases of all your SKUs for changes in demand. Tiltmeter Supply analyzes actual lead times versus planned lead times to detect large variances.

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Review Thrive output

When Tiltmeter detects large demand or lead-time swings, it notifies your sales and operations teams for their review. Our supply chain analysts review the data outputs monthly in parallel with your team to apply nuanced insight that can only come from human engagement. We then adjust forecast policies to respond quicker to demand and lead-time changes.

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Automate

Once reviewed, Tiltmeter sends the adjusted lead times and demand changes to your ERP.

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Results

Your team can proactively address unpredictable demand and change before they escalate and impact your inventory performance, resulting in:

  • Increased sales: Now you can start buying more items experiencing increased demand before they run out of stock.
  • Reduced dead stock: Items that were heavily sold to a few customers who have stopped purchasing those items will now be adjusted in your inventory purchasing system to prevent buying items that are no longer needed.
  • More profitable inventory: Your purchasing timing and quantities are now based on accurate lead times and forecasts, reducing lost sales and dead stock.

Optimizing Sales and Operations Planning for North America’s Most Recognized Wholesalers

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Learn how to identify and prevent dead stock, lost sales, and stockouts with our free demo.
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Are You Aware of Your Inventory Blind Spots from Low-Selling SKUs?

Automatically identify and optimize unpredictable demand from low-selling SKU inventory.

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Your Questions, In Focus

Does Tiltmeter do sales and operations planning?

Sales and operations planning is hard to do, especially for wholesalers. That's because wholesalers have tens to hundreds of thousands of SKUs they manage. What makes sales and operations planning successful is the efficient communication between sales and operations teams about forecast changes. When you’re managing this many SKUs in multiple locations, effective S&OP is difficult.

We simplified S&OP with our patent-pending inventory optimization technology, Tiltmeter. It alerts buyers and branch managers of any changes in your data every month. When a change is detected, it asks the branch manager for their response to the question, “Did we lose this account?” They enter their response and then it goes to the buyer to adjust the forecast for its new accuracy. It’s the benefit of sales and operations planning without all the work.

What happens to our inventory performance if we lose a large customer but don’t know it?

Large and unexpected changes in customer demand are a primary driver of dead stock accumulation and stockouts for wholesale distributors. Most ERP systems are incapable of quickly detecting these changes, leaving purchasing teams unaware of escalating inventory changes and forcing them to react instead of being out in front of it. ERP forecasts typically take up to six months to fully react to significant demand changes, dramatically slowing your responsiveness in adjusting inventory levels. Tiltmeter reduces the time it takes to react to change to curb this from affecting your business.

What inventory performance KPIs are affected by customer losses?

When demand plummets due to the loss of a large customer while your purchasing system continues to place orders, your excess inventory will escalate, inventory turns will drop, and the excess inventory eventually becomes dead stock. This can be prevented by an early-warning system, like Tiltmeter, to alert your teams as soon as demand shifts. Buyers can halt purchases and sellers can begin small-scale discounting to eliminate the remaining stock without hurting your bottom line.