Insights
Practical guides on forecasting, inventory, traceability and data readiness. Written for operations people, not for other consultants.
In preparation
These six guides are written and scheduled. Each will be published in full here, with any templates offered as a direct download rather than behind a form.
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Demand forecasting for small manufacturers: where to start when your data lives in spreadsheets
How to get a defensible forecast out of an Excel export, which methods suit short histories, and how to tell whether a forecast is actually better than last year's numbers.
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How to calculate safety stock and reorder points
The formulas, what each input really means, why the textbook version misleads for intermittent demand, and a template you can use on your own data.
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Lot traceability for manufacturers: what to record, and how to prove it works
Which records make a trace possible, the handful of process steps where the chain usually breaks, and how to run a timed mock trace on your own production.
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Descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics: a plain-language guide for operations teams
What each kind of analytics actually produces, which questions each one answers, and how to tell which you need next.
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Is your data ready for AI? A ten-point checklist for SMEs
An honest self-assessment covering history, granularity, consistency and the organisational conditions that matter more than the data itself.
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Your supplier lead times are wrong: measuring them from your own receipt history
Why the quoted lead time understates what you actually experience, how to measure the real distribution from purchase orders you already have, and what that does to your stock targets.
Article outlines, target keywords and meta descriptions for all six are in docs/06-blog-outlines.md. Nothing is published here yet, so nothing on this page claims to be.
Want the short version now?
Book a free 30-minute data readiness assessment and we will answer the version of these questions that applies to your operation.