From the team building Optimal Chain
Deep technical writing on inventory optimisation, demand forecasting, supply-chain analytics, and the maths that drives it all. No fluff. No SEO filler.
Why the textbook safety stock formula quietly fails your best sellers
The formula in every planning textbook assumes demand follows a smooth bell curve. Real wholesale demand doesn't — it spikes, goes quiet, and jumps when a big customer orders. Where the formula under-protects exactly the products that hurt most, and how buffer stock can be sized from each product's real track record instead.
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Your Christmas range isn't "erratic" — your software just can't see seasons
Most inventory tools grade products by how much their sales wobble — so seasonal lines get labelled unpredictable and starved of buffer stock, right before the season starts. What happens when you grade products on whether they can actually be forecast instead.
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How to plan a £750,000 purchasing budget across 4,000 products
The question purchasing teams actually ask isn't "what does each product need?" — it's "I have this much to spend; what's the best way to spend it?" How a budget-first order plan protects the most urgent revenue first, respects every supplier's minimum order quantity, and re-plans in moments when the budget changes.
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