W H Smith

Daily replenishment made simple.

Our algorithms calculate demand for 11 million SKU/store combinations daily for all of W H Smith's high street stores, covering almost all product areas. We combine historic performance and recent trends to forecast demand, and combine this with space planning parameters and logistics schedules to set replenishment parameters appropriately. Exception reporting, guardrails and learning algorithms build confidence in the solution's forecasts while ultimately giving users control.

An integrated solution delivering tangible results.

Our replenishment solution is fully integrated with third party systems, reducing the manual workload required to manage complex replenishment parameters. We've delivered tangible results, with stores reporting significantly more free space in stock rooms, and an overall £8 million inventory reduction in just the first year of operation.

We've added loads of useful features on top of the powerful forecasting algorithms, giving users more ways to manage stock and replenishment in a complex business:

• Substitution logic predicts sales transference on out-of-stock SKUs, mitigating lost sales by increasing allocations on similar SKUs.
• A simple UI for manipulating ROS curves gives users finer control over forecasts where necessary.
• PowerBI dashboards focus users' attention on the most urgent and impactful actions.
• Auto-reorder raises repeat purchase orders on short lead-time products.
• A web-based line card tool with predictive forecasts and custom SKU aggregation gives teams a 12 month view on long lead-time products, reducing the guess-work and manual inputs involved in managing continuity product in the long term.
• A seasonal bulk allocation tool facilitates effective distribution of highly seasonal product where time is of the essence.