The Source enhances demand forecasting with AI
Canada’s largest consumer technology retailer is incorporating hundreds of variables into its demand planning.
The Source needs to forecast demand for a large, diverse omnichannel product portfolio. Its assortment ranges from low-frequency purchases like TVs to fast-moving convenience items like phone chargers. To effectively forecast demand for its brick-and-mortar stores as well as its e-commerce site, the retailer needed a data-driven approach that would consider both internal and external factors affecting consumer behavior.
To meet its unique demand forecasting needs, The Source decided to implement the Blue Yonder Luminate Demand Edge solution. Enabled by the artificial intelligence (AI)- and machine learning (ML)-based Blue Yonder Luminate planning platform and delivered via Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, the solution enables The Source to incorporate hundreds of demand variables as it creates a single forecast.
Planners at The Source can leverage prescriptive recommendations to enable more accurate decisions, such as staging inventory to minimizing stock-outs and maximizing turns. The retailer can enhance forecast accuracy by combining internal data with external and interrelated variables like weather patterns, pricing and promotions, holidays, product characteristics, and events.
According to The Source, since it has started using Blue Yonder Luminate Demand Edge, it has been able to reduce inventory investments by 19% over the course of two years. Previously, The Source relied on manual analysis and sales history.
Based in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, The Source operates over 300 retail locations nationwide, as well as an online sales channel .
Serta Simmons Bedding obtains full supply chain view
Serta Simmons Bedding is currently in the process of implementing the Blue Yonder SaaS-based Integrated Demand and Supply Planning solution, part of the vendor’s Luminate Planning platform, into its existing advanced planning system (APS).
The manufacturer of mattresses and bedding products, which operates a direct-to-consumer channel, is digitally transforming its supply chain planning capabilities. hopes to improve manufacturing efficiency, better meet ongoing customer demand and changing customer demand patterns, and support advanced planning of raw materials and ongoing growth efforts.
Leveraging the solution’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) prescriptive recommendations, Serta Simmons Bedding seeks to obtain a holistic and connected view of its supply chain planning process, supporting its forecast accuracy and inventory management efforts.