Inventory Optimization, Simplified
Our ERP optimizers monitor and adjust the existing settings with your ERP system, so you don't have to implement a costly inventory purchasing system.
Optimize Your ERP System
Is it possible to fix your wholesale inventory challenges without new software?
You’ve made a large investment in your ERP system. There’s no need to replace your entire ERP purchasing software when you can use our inventory ERP optimizers to dynamically optimize your ERP's static settings.
ERP systems have a lot of inventory settings, but they are rarely reviewed and optimized. Thrive's analyses have shown these static settings cause the bulk of inventory challenges for wholesale distributors.
Failing to optimize your slow-moving SKUs causes:
- Excess dead stock
- Low inventory turns
- Lost sales
- Low fill rates
- Dissatisfied clients
- Too many backorders
Thermostock®
Prevent up to 90% of your dead stock by automatically identifying and optimizing low-volume SKUs.
Tiltmeter®
Reduce stockouts and lost sales by up to 50% by increasing your ERP’s response time to demand and supply changes.
Chosen by North America’s Largest Wholesalers
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Cost Effective, Time Saving
Replacing your ERP purchasing module is cost-intensive and time-consuming with a high risk of not improving your issues of unpredictable demand and change. We created a better way.
Thermostock and Tiltmeter leverage your existing investment in your ERP system – while delivering transformative results.
Discover the difference |
ERP and supply chain planning systems
|
Thrive’s inventory optimization software
|
|---|---|---|
|
Disruption
Requires buyers to learn a new system |
High disruption |
No disruption |
|
Expense
Cost of implementation and ongoing support |
High cost |
Low cost |
|
Failure risk
Risk of failed buyer adoption |
High risk |
No risk |
| Implementation time |
6-12 months |
Less than 30 days per module |
| Prevents dead stock |
No |
Yes, up to 90% |
|
Improves fill rates
On your low-selling parts |
No |
Yes, by an average of 8 points |
| Time to detect changes in demand and supply |
4-6 months |
1-2 months |
|
Leverages ERP real-time on-hands and sales
Not batched, but real time |
No |
Yes |
| Complimentary analysis (with your data) |
No |
Yes |
Your Questions, In Focus
What is inventory optimization for wholesale distributors?
At the basic level, inventory optimization for wholesalers means running some types of analyses for each SKU (ideally at each stocking location) to determine the optimal quantities to stock. Historically this involved forecasting upcoming sales based on historical sales. Then comparing the forecast for each SKU versus current on-hands and purchase orders.
The challenge for wholesalers is that at least 80% of SKUs sell less than 10 times a year at a specific location, which is too low a volume to forecast accurately.
How can AI optimize inventory for wholesale distributors?
Most wholesalers rely on their ERP purchasing modules to generate suggested purchase and transfer quantities. There are also third-party buying systems like Blue Ridge, Recurrency, Epicor Smart Forecasts, or Netstock. The first challenge with both ERP and third-party systems is that they rely on inaccurate forecasts to calculate stocking levels and POs/TOs.
AI can be incorporated into these types of systems to improve the forecasts but another challenge is that wholesaler buyers need to learn a totally new system to cut purchase and transfer orders.
Thrive is the only inventory optimization vendor that uses AI for inventory optimization rather than on forecasts. Thrive’s AI models study every sales transaction for each SKU as well as the purchases, onhands, lead times to compute the optimal quantities that maximize sales while preventing dead stock. This is especially helpful with low selling and sporadic SKUs which don’t lend themselves to a forecast based approach yet constitute the vast majority of a wholesaler’s catalog.
Does ThriveAI have any results from existing wholesale distributors?
Thrive’s studies of hundreds of wholesalers have revealed that 70 to 90% of dead stock comes from lower selling SKUs, typically item rankings with C, D, and lower. Since these SKUs only generate 20% of a wholesaler’s revenues, wholesale buyers naturally focus on their A and B items that constitute the bulk of a wholesaler’s revenues. But unfortunately no one has time to review the tens of thousands of low selling items.
By optimizing the low selling SKUs, Thrive is able to significantly reduce dead stock. Thrive’s clients have reduced dead stock by 78% in 6 months!
ThriveAI is not just reducing dead stock. Thrive also increases the stocking levels of SKUs that forecast based methods (like those used in the ERP purchasing and 3rd party purchasing systems) don’t carry an adequate amount of.
In fact, General Air, a welding parts supplier and Colorado, was able to increase their parts fill rates from 78% to almost 90%. Having key parts in stock or not in stock can make the difference in getting a large sale. Most contractors want to get everything they need for a job in one trip.