Trade

Inventory Optimisation Agent

Nobody knows exactly how many days of cover each item has. So safety stock gets estimated on the high side.

Optimises stock levels and reduces tied-up capital.

Open agent
Public administration

Four processes that take up the most time today

Developed in Germany · Hosted in the EU

Developed in Germany · Hosted in the EU or on-premises

Delivered together with

STACKIT Sovereign hosting in Germany, single-tenant from the first user.
Rödl Legal, tax and compliance expertise for legally sound deployment.
4P Consulting Advisory and implementation for the public sector, starting with the AI readiness assessment.

Four weeks of target cover for every item, even though replenishment and safety stock together cover fifteen days.

The target cover is set once for the whole product group, usually based on the worst delivery anyone can remember. Anyone who wants to change it has to calculate two figures separately: the replenishment lead time from recent deliveries and the safety stock from sales variability and lead time variability. With 180 items per product group, someone does the maths for the twenty most important and never for the rest.

180items plannedThat is how many lines one buyer manages in the dry goods product group.
28 daysblanket target coverFast movers and seasonal items are set to the same cover.
11 daysmeasured replenishment lead timeThat is how long the last 24 deliveries took on average to reach the dock.
64,000 eurostied-up capitalEleven days of replenishment and four days of safety stock cover demand; the remaining 13 days of cover sit on the shelf as stock.

The 20% less excess stock comes from the 180 items that run on four weeks of target cover, even though replenishment lead time and calculated safety stock together cover fifteen days and sales have been stable for eight months.

The 20% reduction in excess stock is this agent's headline figure. The 180 planned items and the eleven-day replenishment lead time represent an ordinary dry goods product group; none of it was measured.

Three steps through the process.

Purchasing decides on every order; the agent supplies the demand forecast, the safety stock and a proposal for each item.

Analyse the sales pattern per item

The agent reads 24 months of sales from the ERP and separates baseline demand, seasonality and promotional peaks. It flags items with erratic demand separately.

Forecast sheet for dry goods, 180 items, 24 months of history

Calculate the safety stock per item

The agent measures the replenishment lead time from recent deliveries and, alongside it, calculates the safety stock from sales variability and lead time variability. It compares both figures with the stored target cover.

Item TS-40118 pasta 500 g: target cover 28 days, replenishment lead time 11 days, safety stock 4 days

Pass order proposals to planning

The agent produces a proposal per item with quantity, date and the resulting cover. Purchasing opens the list in the ERP and places the orders.

Proposal list with 52 lines, 12 of them with a changed quantity

What the agent does not do.

Purchasing places the order, not the agent.

It presents quantity, date and the resulting cover. Every line is approved in the ERP by the buyer who manages the product group.

It does not judge whether a supplier can deliver the quantity promised.

It works with the lead times of the last 24 deliveries. Purchasing weighs that against what was agreed in the annual review.

It only sees promotional quantities once the date is in the sales plan.

The secondary placement for week 40 multiplies demand for two weeks. Until the date is booked, it plans on baseline demand, and purchasing adds the promotional quantity by hand.

Connected systems

  • ERP merchandise management
  • SCM procurement
  • sales planning

Operations

  • Deployment modelEU cloud or private cloud
  • Data processingGDPR-compliant, no model training on your data
  • Responsible teamsLogistics, purchasing

The questions that come up before the first meeting.

How quickly is the Inventory Optimisation Agent ready to use?

A pilot typically runs on your own data within 4 to 6 weeks. The agent connects to your existing systems rather than running as a separate, parallel environment.

Where is the data processed?

EU cloud or private cloud. Processing is GDPR-compliant and models are never trained on your data. Details in the Trust Center.

Where does the figure “20% less excess stock” come from?

It is based on experience from comparable projects and process benchmarks, not a commitment. We work out the realistic effect for your organisation during the assessment before the pilot.

Related agents.

Intake review, case 2026/04711

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