Thread by @digitallynativ

There has been quite a bit of conversation lately regarding inventory velocity and matching demand with supply for DTC companies

Having been focused on solving this challenge for more than a decade, I'll offer up my perspective on the best approach

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The first and most important thing to get out of the way...

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and there are very few one-size-fits-many solutions

This is because no two companies architect their supply chain and demand engine the same way

And they shouldn't

The manner in which a business takes products to market and onboards customers is at the very heart of how they create value for consumers. It's the underpinning of competitive advantage

It sits aside Brand and Service as the three pillars of DTC success

Building a Demand and Supply engine is like creating and cooking a great recipe

There are ingredients:

Design
Technical Design
Raw Materials
Manufacturing
MOQs
Lead Times
Inbound Logistics
Warehousing
Outbound Logistics

And there are strategies and tactics to execute the recipe (Go to Market Plan):

Target Customer(s)
Creative/Brand
Storytelling/Voice/Copy
Demand Channel Deployment
Sales Channel Deployment
Clienteling
Customer Service
Hospitality

And so the ingredients, strategies, and tactics can be combined in any number of ways to create an optimal outcome

The ability to execute this well end-to-end and consistently over time requires a full organizational effort and coordination

This leads me back to how this challenge is solved

In simple terms, Excel and a smart, savvy and talented individual (or group) is *Undefeated* -- particularly in early-stage companies

The ability to blend art and science in this capacity is paramount

The individual or group responsible for matching Demand and Supply must work VERY closely with these functions:

Marketing
Finance
Supply Chain
Operations
Merchandising

And most importantly they must be able to articulate an objective narrative and strategy across all functions

The individual needs to be able to triangulate future demand by synthesizing qual and quant data from each of these functions

The future demand is balanced with supply to create an optimal 'flow' which is then passed through supply chain constraints

This is an iterative process

The goal is not perfection but incremental improvement

Each pass through a 'learning cycle' should provide incremental improvement across every ingredient and ultimately the outcome of the recipe

KPI and OKR performance relative to expectations helps to measure this improvement

As businesses scale and the recipe is grooved to the point where it can be repeated consistently with relatively minimal effort, efficiency becomes the priority

When variability with respect to inputs, process, and outputs is diminished, technology can be considered

There are lots of solutions for medium-sized and large businesses that fit these criteria

These businesses should pursue a 'back-end' tech stack that includes: (+examples)

PLM: Backbone
ERP: Netsuite
S&OP Planning: Anaplan

In general terms, the checklist for inventory planning technology readiness is as follows:

✅'Clean' and structured data
✅Near-optimal 'ingredient' mix
✅Coordinated, repeatable process

Until then, reliance on talent and inexpensive/flexible tools (excel) and is optimal