Imagine the supply chain complexity faced by a direct-sales beauty company, with 840,000 independent beauty consultants in 14 countries selling some 90,000 SKUs and locations. At the direct-to-consumer level, beauty needs an even more accurate sense of where inventory is than most retailers, due to the range and a sheer number of different products. To that end, Belcorp, an established Latin American beauty company, is working with ToolsGroup, a supply chain optimization tech company, to give its supply chain an AI-driven makeover. This high-tech approach to optimizing inventory, fine-tuning forecasts, determining the most effective placement of stock, and streamlining planning processes will help make sure enough product is there, where it’s needed.

Inna Kuznetsova, CEO of ToolsGroup is a globally recognized expert on supply chain and inventory management and the role of AI in probabilistic forecasting. She notes that a well-managed supply chain is a force for environmental good, and is available to talk about the challenges faced by beauty companies like Belcorp and Avon and what they are doing to untangle complexity and calculate optimal stock targets, including:

  • Reducing and properly positioning inventory across a company’s network – some 2500-3000 finished products and 6000 raw material ingredients
  • Increasing customer satisfaction while boosting profitability by right-sizing inventory
  • Decreasing the amount of on-hand inventory and geographically positioning it where it can best fulfill the demand
  • Using automation and statistical, optimization, and heuristics algorithms to reduce waste and unnecessary delivery costs
  • Maximizing supply chain efficiency and business performance while reducing the carbon footprint