Case file
Readiness assessment- Warehouses
- 3
- Active SKUs
- 12,000
- Records sampled
- 500
- Issue rate
- 8%
40 of 500 records had a missing or conflicting SKU identifier.
Case study · Hollis Supply
Hollis Supply, before the pilot
One distributor, three feeds that disagree, and a forecasting pilot that waits until its data passes an agreed gate.
Three warehouses, one weekly forecast
Hollis Supply sells industrial fasteners to trade customers. Operations wanted a demand forecast it could trust before buying stock.
- Use case
- Weekly demand forecasting for replenishment
- Decision owner
- Marta Lindqvist, Head of Operations
The forecast reads three feeds
- WMSStock on hand and bin locations Dana Whitlock · Warehouse ops
- ERPItem master and sales orders Marcus Okafor · Planning
- Supplier EDIAdvance ship notices from suppliers Owner: unassigned
What 500 records showed
We sampled 500 records across the three feeds. 40 had a missing or conflicting SKU identifier.
40of 500
Records the pilot cannot use
Each amber dot is a sampled record with a missing or conflicting SKU identifier: an 8% issue rate.
- Conflicting 26
- Missing 14
- Clean 460
Most flaws arrive by EDI
24 of the 40 flagged records came in on supplier advance ship notices.
A washer with no code
Its supplier notice arrives without an item code, so the receipt never matches.
One box, three spellings
Suppliers code the same box of 100 three ways, so a box can be booked as one unit.
Repair before any pilot
At 8%, the sample is eight times over the gate. The pilot waits.
What is repaired, what is still open
Repair runs in priority order. Two gaps remain, and the gate stays shut until each one has an owner.
- Status: repair in progress
- Pilot: not started
- Next: re-sample after the EDI mapping
Repaired
3 items- 01
WMS and ERP share one item key
Both feeds now map to the ERP item master, so HS-20417 is one item, not two.
Marcus Okafor, Planning - 02
Two feeds have a named owner
Dana Whitlock signed for the WMS and Marcus Okafor for the item master in the feed ownership register.
Feed ownership register - 03
The issue rate is measured every week
The same 500-record sample runs each Monday, so progress is counted, not guessed.
Readiness report
Still open
2 gaps- 01
Supplier EDI pack-size codes
PK100, BX/100 and 100 EA still arrive for one box. The mapping table needs a Purchasing owner to sign it.
Blocks the gate - 02
Nobody owns the returns data
Each warehouse logs returns in its own spreadsheet. Unowned, returned stock distorts weekly demand.
Owner: unassigned
Gate before the pilot≤1%
Assessment sample: 8%Re-sample once both gaps close
Four conditions, agreed before any spend
Proposed acceptance conditions for the Hollis pilot. They are thresholds to meet, not results.
Today: repair in progress
GatePhase
-
01 · Gate
≤1%
Sampled identifier issue rate before the pilot starts
Now 8%, not met
-
02 · Pilot
6 weeks
Weekly demand forecasting, started only once the gate is met
Not started
-
03 · Evaluation
20%to≤16%
Weighted forecast error, baseline against target, on the same held-out weekly demand dataset
Baseline agreed
-
04 · Decision
Go or stop
The operations owner reviews the evidence and decides whether to proceed
Marta Lindqvist decides
We agreed what the pilot has to beat before we spent anything on it. That made the go or stop call mine, and simple.
Start with a two-week assessment
€6,000, fixed before it starts. A readiness report, a feed ownership register and a repair plan your owner can act on.