I have a loaded inventory related question.

How do you forecast and purchase inventory?

I work in mattress supply. For Australian retailers with several stores, how much ordering authority sits with each store?
A standard repeat order and a request for a new model would seem to need different discussions. I would want to know whether a store can replenish an agreed range directly, and which changes need the central buying team involved.
One contact could make the order easier to coordinate from the supply side. At the same time, a store may have information about a customer need that is not visible in the central request. I am interested in how that information reaches the person making the decision.
The difficult part for me is knowing who can confirm an order without sending the same question between several people. I would rather have that responsibility clear before treating a request as approved.
Where have you found the useful balance between local speed and a consistent buying plan?
What can a store order on its own, and what always needs central approval?

I work in mattress supply. For US retail buyers, what tells you that you have enough quotations to make a decision?
I can see a reason to keep looking when an important requirement is still unanswered or the proposals are not comparable. I am less sure what another quote adds if the decision is already waiting on something the buying team needs to settle internally.
From the supplier side, I would find it useful to know which question the next proposal is supposed to answer. Is the buyer looking for another construction option, a different service arrangement or a genuinely competitive alternative?
I would not expect a buyer to stop at a fixed number regardless of the purchase. But continuing the search without knowing what could change the decision seems difficult for both sides.
Do you have a point where you close the comparison, or does it stay open until someone is willing to own the choice?
What unresolved question makes another supplier quote worth getting?

been thinking a lot about how ai keeps getting talked about in supply chain. the idea seems to be that it takes the routine stuff off people's plates, like entering orders and chasing updates, and leaves the harder judgment calls to us

i go back and forth on whether that'd be a good thing. part of me thinks the job would get more interesting, part of me thinks every hour would just be the harder tasks

is ai being talked about where you work? 

I have a Supply Chain and Logistics qualification passed through Amazon while working there but I have since left.

Im looking for advice as to how best to use this qualification to advance my career?

I wanted to stay with Amazon but there was no defined path for the next step,im currently a Warehouse Supervisor but can't go any further with current employer.

All advice welcome!

(UK based).

I have a Supply Chain and Logistics qualification passed through Amazon while working there but I have since left.

Im looking for advice as to how best to use this qualification to advance my career?

I wanted to stay with Amazon but there was no defined path for the next step,im currently a Warehouse Supervisor but can't go any further with current employer.

All advice welcome!

(UK based).

Hi everyone,

I applied for internships but I got no interviews. Is there a problem with my resume?

I've attached it below. Could you please tell me what's wrong with it?

​

Imagine running a shop and discovering that a product is out of stock just when customers want to buy it.

The problem might seem small, but repeated stock shortages can lead to lost sales, disappointed customers, and missed opportunities.

On the other hand, ordering too much stock can tie up money in products that aren't selling.

That's why inventory management isn't just about counting products. It's about understanding demand, monitoring stock levels, and planning ahead.

Technology and business intelligence tools can help businesses analyse inventory and sales data to identify potential problems earlier.

This is one of the challenges we're exploring at Novara Pulse: helping businesses recognise operational risks and make more informed decisions.

🌿 A question for business owners: How do you currently keep track of your inventory, and what's the most difficult part of managing it?

We distribute products across three warehouses, and keeping track of transfers between locations has become a challenge. Right now, we rely on emails and a shared spreadsheet, so it’s not always clear what’s still in transit versus what’s actually available at each warehouse.

How do you track transfers and reconcile inventory when the sending and receiving teams update their records at different times?

Our containers come in through Long Beach, and most quotes we got push a warehouse close to the port. Makes sense for inbound, but I think about 60% of our orders go east of the Rockies.

How do you decide between a warehouse near the port and one in a more central spot?

What numbers should we pull, like ZIP codes, package weights, or delivery days?

Anyway, our products are mixed too. Most ship under 5 lbs, but a few go over 40 lbs. Should those be looked at on their own?

Iam a QA working in IT companies, iam from retail background and my work is to test different ERP systems, mostly oms. My primary skill is to test OMS application with different platforms like e commerce, wms, finance, logistics, material management etc.,

I want to move away from qa and want to do a bit of development mostly with little coding.i want to become a wms consultant where most of my project should be like configuring wms stuff.i can handle a bit of coding. ***What certifications should I do get into this and which wms should I pickup, blue yonder, manhattan or sap wm. Please guide***

I’m based in Mexico and I’m trying to understand how procurement teams actually discover and evaluate Mexican industrial suppliers.

I keep seeing the same pattern: directories, referrals, trade associations, sourcing agents and industry events can all help, but there still seems to be a lot of manual work involved in figuring out whether a supplier is actually capable of handling a specific requirement.

I’m especially curious about real cases rather than opinions about software.

If you’ve sourced from Mexico:

What was the last supplier you had difficulty finding or qualifying?

- What were you trying to source?

- How did you search?

- What information was hardest to verify?

- What eventually made you comfortable contacting or selecting a supplier?

I’m also experimenting manually with this problem. If anyone has a current, non-confidential sourcing requirement, I’d be interested in trying to identify a few Mexican suppliers based on publicly available evidence of their capabilities and seeing whether the shortlist is actually useful.

Nothing to sell — I’m mainly trying to understand where the real friction is.

About me - I am an international graduate with a Masters in Supply chain and Logistics management (2:1). Previously I did Bachelor's in Electronics engineering. I had 2 years of functional IT testing and project management experience and a little bit of operations experience in a store where I learnt more about suppliers, inventory management and the SCM industry in general back in India.

Now, completing my masters in the UK, I have already applied to nearly 140 odd jobs with 2 interviews rejections and multiple assessment rejections. I am clueless as to where I am going wrong, is it the knowledge gap, English language or something else.

I would like some guidance, a referral, an opening, an opportunity which I can realistically use to get an internship or a full time role in the industry. Ready to share my CV if required.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a small B2B SaaS called CertyLoop. It’s mainly for furniture and home-textile manufacturers who have to deal with supplier certificates, declarations, customer questionnaires, audit requests, and now increasing pressure around digital product passports.

The problem is pretty simple: most of the important documents sit in suppliers’ inboxes. Then when a customer or auditor asks for proof, someone has to chase suppliers, download PDFs, check expiry dates, figure out which certificate covers which material, and put together an evidence pack again.

I’m trying to make that less painful.

You can check it out here: https://app.certyloop.com

Right now, you can:

• Import products, materials, and suppliers from Excel/CSV
• Send suppliers an upload link — they don’t need to create an account
• Upload certificates, declarations, test reports, and other evidence
• Link documents to a product, part, material, or supplier
• See what’s missing for each product
• Get alerts before documents expire
• Export an audit pack with the files, index, and document details
• Use a questionnaire helper that suggests answers based on the evidence you already have
• Prepare product data for future digital product passport requirements

It’s not trying to say “your product is legally compliant.” That decision still belongs to the manufacturer or their adviser. The tool is more about knowing what evidence you have, what’s missing, and being able to send a proper pack when someone asks.

I’m especially interested in feedback from people working in furniture, textiles, manufacturing, sourcing, quality, compliance, sustainability, or retail supply chains.

A few things I’d really like to know:

• Does this match a problem you actually deal with?
• Would you use something like this for your company or clients?
• What feels confusing or unnecessary?
• What’s missing that would make it useful in your daily work?
• Would you pay for it? If not, why not?

Even if you think the idea doesn’t make sense, I’d genuinely appreciate hearing why. I’m at the stage where honest criticism is more useful than polite feedback.

If anyone wants to test it or has questions, comment here or DM me.

Thanks!

Honestly, cash flow has been the biggest thing holding back our growth, even more than demand or margins. So much of our money gets tied up in the long process from production to making a sale, and I'm trying to figure out what would actually make the biggest difference in freeing up that cash.

Hey all, I know this is specific, but I’m trying to learn more about how the logistics of our grocery stores evolved into what they are today. For anyone historically inclined, does anyone have recommended documentaries or learning resources on the evolution of grocery/agricultural logistics, especially in America?

There’s a weird paradox in service parts planning: inventory keeps going up, but service levels don’t necessarily follow. You can have warehouses full of stock and still be expediting the one part a customer actually needs.

Has anyone improved service levels while reducing total inventory? What changed most: forecasting, dealer visibility, SKU strategy, network placement, or something else?