Reduced cost of inventory
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor customer ordering patterns and
requirements to recommend inventory needs to the purchasing team
Process
The client is a leading retail company. The customer has hundreds of stores spread across multiple countries, and inventory management was a completely manual and tedious task. With continuous expansion of the business and increase in online sales, optimization of the inventory was becoming a critical success factor for growth.
Solution
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based solution was developed to automate the inventory management and monitoring process for the customer. The intent was to track stock from the time goods are ordered to received to shipped for customers. Real-time data was analyzed on stock requirements to create an automated order process for inventory. The AI tool monitored customer ordering patterns and requirements to recommend ordering needs to the purchasing team. Goods once received are scanned for barcode and identified and storage is optimized depending on the sales turnover of the products. Through this solution we were able to automate 60% of the inventory monitoring work for the customer.
Challenges Addressed
Inaccurate Results
AI tools gave more accurate results as compared to human monitoring. It helped keep the cash spend in check by optimizing orders with right price.
Lack of real-time product tracking data
Once automated, the facility managers were able to keep track of product requirements in real-time with data being available on smartphones.
Unoptimized inventory
The AI tool helped the customer keep track of total purchase orders and also to ensure that its inventory is optimized.
Manually intensive inventory monitoring process
The process was low on automation and required manual intervention in most stages hence growth in business was depended on hiring more resources.
Manual error
Possibility of a manual error is normally high while processing bulk data for multiple products and locations. This was eliminated with the help of the AI tool.
Outcome
- Reduced labour cost by 45% for inventory management.
- Reduced inventory cost by about 4% in the first year.
- Storage space reduction by 15%, by optimizing quantity requirements.