Tango is new dance craze for supply chain execs

In pursuit of the holy grail of maximizing supply chain efficiency, solutions provider Orchestro is taking on the $252 billion challenge with the latest version of its Tango product platform.

Orchestro is a leading demand analytics and data management company and Tango is the name of the collection of software solutions consumer packaged goods companies use to solve some of their biggest supply chain challenges. Technically speaking, Tango is what supply chain executives and IT types call a SaaS-based demand signal management platform.

Orchestro’s latest release (version 9) brings a range of enhanced capabilities that let users address inventory distortions cause by out-of-stocks and overstocks. It is a global problem and costs North American retailers alone more than $252 billion annually, according to a recent study by IHL Group. CPG companies could reduce this problem by better managing their supply chains and forecasts using actual in-store demand data, according to Orchestro.

“By enabling our customers to quickly identify and resolve supply chain and in-store execution issues, we help them maximize their efficiency,” said Gary Maxwell, chief solutions officer for Orchestro. “This helps our customers minimize inventory distortion and capture lost sales opportunity.”

One way that goal is accomplished is through Tango Insights and a newly included set of detailed supply chain analytics designed to combat inventory distortion. Designed to support root-cause analysis, the reports help customers identify potential problems with in-stock percentage, adjust forecasts and track forecast error using Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), quickly view their inventory pipeline, and validate compliance with retailer mandates related to fill rates, delivery dates and other inventory measures.

Another area of emphasis is closed-loop broker activity reporting. CPG companies spend billions annually on third party brokers to help them manage in-store execution, promotions and other inventory activities. To get the most from this investment, CPG companies need a mechanism to ensure that broker personnel are focused on addressing the right issues, in the right places, at the right times, according to Orchestro. As a result, the firm’s Tango Science ShelfSense solution delivers on shelf availability (OSA) alerts to brokers, prioritized based on lost sales opportunity. Broker activity to correct in-store issues is also captured within the platform and then dashboards are used to show broker activity on alerts, lost sales recaptured and other metrics for any retailer-broker combination.

Lastly, demand-focused inventory orders are designed to simplify replenishment. It can take CPG operations personnel hours to create store-specific orders for promotional inventory replenishment – and in most cases the orders don’t take current inventory or in-store demand into account, according to Orchestro. Excessive orders may result in overstocks, contributing to inventory distortion. Using the new store ordering feature within Tango Science PromoSense, CPG personnel can create more accurate orders in a fraction of the time.