Inventory Optimization
Our inventory optimization work pursues a double goal often seen as contradictory: reducing working capital tied up in stock and improving service levels at the same time. This is not magic, but a matter of tuning: most SMEs hold too much stock where it serves no purpose, and not enough where it counts. Optimizing means moving stock from the wrong place to the right one.
The problem it solves
Excess stock ties up cash, takes up space and hides the real flow problems. Conversely, stockouts cost sales and trust. Many companies experience both at once — global overstock and localised stockouts — because stock is distributed out of habit rather than by the logic of demand and lead times.
On top of this, stock masks the real problems: as long as a large buffer absorbs every irregularity, a weak forecast or an unreliable supplier has no consequence — and therefore stays undetected. Reducing stock is thus not only about freeing up cash, but also about bringing these hidden weaknesses to light and fixing them deliberately, instead of financing them forever.
Our approach to inventory optimization
We work on the levers that truly determine stock: forecast quality, the calculation of safety stock per item, replenishment policy and catalogue segmentation (not every item deserves the same treatment). The decision — which service level to target, for which products — belongs to the decision layer of the Two-Layer Model; tuning the stock is the execution layer that carries it out. Our resources safety stock and demand forecasting go deeper into two of these levers.
We refuse two deceptive shortcuts: the flat margin applied to the whole catalogue, and a single service target for every reference. A fast-moving product and an erratic one call for neither the same safety stock nor the same policy. Our work is precisely to differentiate: segment, calculate on real data, and give each item family the treatment that suits it. The gain rarely comes from a miracle tool; it comes from this discipline of tuning, item by item, that frees up cash where stock was sleeping while reinforcing service where it was missing.
The deliverables
- A segmentation of your catalogue by stake (turnover, criticality, variability).
- Safety stocks recalculated on real data, item by item.
- A clear replenishment policy your teams can apply.
- A target stock/service balance, with the indicators to track it.
Who it is for
For SMEs managing several dozen or several hundred references that feel their stock is not working for them: tight cash, a full warehouse, and yet stockouts. The service is aimed as much at leadership, which steers capital, as at purchasing and logistics teams, which apply the policy day to day. It is particularly relevant after a phase of rapid growth, when the catalogue has expanded faster than the management methods, or before a warehouse investment, to check that you are not simply financing poorly tuned stock.
The first step
A free forty-five-minute diagnostic session helps estimate where the useless stock hides and where your stockouts are created — no commitment. Even a rough look at your item structure and your turnover figures usually shows whether the biggest potential lies in freed-up cash, in better service, or in both. On that basis, you can decide whether and where deeper work is worth it — you get an honest, fact-based reading first, and keep the decision in your hands throughout.
Frequently asked questions
What is inventory optimization?
It is the tuning of stock levels to reduce working capital without degrading service, by acting on forecasting, safety stocks and replenishment policy.
Can you really reduce stock and improve service?
Yes, because excess and stockout often coexist: you move stock from items where it is useless to those where it protects service.
From what size is it worthwhile?
As soon as an SME manages several dozen references with stockouts or overstock, optimization brings a measurable gain.