Buy based on signals, not guesswork Most distributors I talk to are making purchasing decisions off a spreadsheet someone built three years ago and a gut feeling developed over a decade. That combination works, until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, you're either sitting on 90 days of a slow-moving SKU that's eating shelf space, or you're short on something that moved twice as fast as your history said it would. AI-driven business intelligence is starting to change that math

Safety stock keeps orders moving when deliveries don't Most safety stock calculations assume your lead time data is telling the truth. It isn't. If you've been in replenishment for more than a year, you already know this. The number in your system is whatever someone typed in during setup, maybe updated once, and now it sits there like a fact while your actual supplier delivers anywhere from 6 to 14 days depending on the week, the carrier, the weather, and what else is going