The Client

The client is a leading apparel retailer in the United States.

Business Need

The client was implementing a new assortment planning process and wanted to improve the allocation of merchandise to stores using assortment plans. The client needed to recognize constraints on supply and calibrate allocations in constrained supply situations to support the business strategy of prioritizing individual stores or groups of stores (such as new stores). The client wanted to improve the balance of inventory across multiple Distribution Centers.

Allocation Optimization Solution

Columbus Consulting analyzed the opportunity and designed algorithms that accounted for assortment plans, utilized current sales trends and forecasts, prioritized individual stores or groups of stores and managed DC level supply constraints.

This design project was a total of 7 weeks in duration.

1 week of discovery
3 weeks of functional design
3 weeks of technical design

Benefits

The client has a functional and technical design that will enable them to implement improved allocation algorithms.
The client has recognized the significant potential of the Allocation Optimization work to deliver improved results.

The Client

The client is a leading shoe retailer in the United States

Business Need

The client wanted to improve their inventory productivity which was inconsistent on a store by store basis due to static allocation calculation methods.

Allocation Optimization Solution
Columbus Consulting analyzed the opportunity and designed more sophisticated algorithms that accounted for store level plans, utilized current sales trends and forecasts, and recognized store level capacities constraints.

The end-to-end project timeline was 8 weeks as follows:

2 weeks of discovery
3 weeks of design and approval
3 weeks of implementation

Benefits

During difficult economic times, DSW has had commendable performance. Inventory productivity is one of the tools that contributed to these results.

The company has directly recognized that Allocation Optimization enabled the inventories to be better synchronized with demand, resulting in better optimized inventory levels across the chain.

The Client

The client is a leading young adult oriented fashion based apparel retailer in the United States.

Business Need

The client wished to improve their ability to create better individualized store level size break information for buying and allocating decisions.  There was a strong desire to utilize actual historical sales and inventory history as the basis to model stocking levels by size and to optimize pre-pack design.

Size Selling Solution
Columbus Consulting brought the prototype methodology, the approach, the business analytics, and the scorecard reporting to bring better size break by store information into the business.  The application fits under or independent of existing purchasing and allocation systems as a standalone process.

The end-to-end project timeline was 8 months as follows:

2 months of requirement discovery and planning
3 months of design and development
3 months of training and implementation

Benefits

The client integrated the size selling process and application into their packaged allocation system and has experienced significantly different size break curves that resulted in longer periods of fully in stock assortments.  This results in higher customer service with all sizes being available for sale and likely fewer units for product end markdowns