top of page

Stock Availability: Inventory Management Pain Points and AI


Stock outs

Having delivered inventory and supply chain projects across numerous industries and problem domains at Remi AI, we have found that the problems clients wish to solve typically fall into 4 broad buckets:


The Auto-Supply Chain and Demand Forecasting suite offered by Remi AI hits each of these pain points in the order desired by the client, and is tailored completely to the business needs at hand.


Stock Availability:


You don’t need a financial metrics to explain that a situation where a customer who wants to purchase something that a business doesn’t have in stock is not ideal.

But while a stock-out equates to lost revenue in the short term, the impact can be much larger and long term. Depending on the nature of your business, not being able to fill an order could cost you the lifetime value of a client, not to mention the reputational hit if said client reviews your business negatively - both in official forums but also throughout their business network.


Business has shifted to a buyers market, with a wealth of research options and businesses solutions hereunto unseen, so avoiding such a situation is a no brainer.

For a retail business, having the right amount of stock on hand at the right time is essential to success. In today’s hyper-competitive work where the likes of Amazon have made it their mission to ensure that consumers have almost all products available at the touch of a button and in the shortest time frame possible, retailers cannot afford to be missing sales when the demand is there.


A stock out can be caused for many reasons, some of which are listed below:

  • Incorrect purchasing policies

  • Inaccurate demand forecasting

  • Poor stock-keeping methodologies

  • Supplier Issues

Of these four, the first two are issues that can be significantly reduced through the use of artificial intelligence methodologies. Remi AI’s Auto-Supply Chain platform, Remi Studios, is powered by Reinforcement Learning, or “decision making A.I”, that can be specifically attuned to minimise stock-outs whilst also keep the quantity of stock on hand as lean as possible. This balancing act is the true sign of success in inventory management and works towards a world where stock availability is assured for our clients.


The Remi Studios platform works by creating a digital twin of the purchasing environment using historical data. The platform trains on this data to hone an optimal decision making process, specific to your business. At the completion of training, the A.I has developed a forecasting strategy localised to an SKU-level. By allowing the A.I to purchase what it predicts to be an optimal amount of each SKU in this training environment ensures no financial risk to your business, until an acceptable accuracy is achieved.


Once the purchasing A.I has developed an optimal purchasing policy, it is then allowed to raise purchase orders in the real world. That’s when the real fun comes in, with the Remi Studios platform doing what it was created to do: increasing stock availability while reducing the Total Inventories for the business.


What’s Next for AI and Inventory Management?


Our humble goal is to revolutionise supply chain management. While working towards solving the above 4 pain points (and coming damn close), we are simultaneously working to improve delivery scheduling, warehouse simulation, and global logistics simulation into our offering. The advantage of an entire supply chain being managed by the same AI platform is the benefits reaped from these different components speaking to each other. It truly is a hugely exciting time to be working in this space.


Stay tuned on the Remi AI blog as we build out the complete supply chain offering!


 

Who are we?


Remi AI is an Artificial Intelligence Research Firm with offices in Sydney and San Francisco. We have delivered inventory and supply chain projects across FMCG, automotive, industrial and corporate supply and more.



 

Want to know more? Sign up to our newsletter for the latest info from us and other knowledgable folk.


bottom of page