Question 1

Who is this kind of audit right for?

Accepted Answer

Small-to-mid-market operators — manufacturers, distributors, importers, and online sellers — running roughly $5M to $500M in inventory dollars, often without a dedicated in-house supply chain team. The sweet spot is the operator whose warehouse, 3PL, or ERP data is hard to trust, and whose owner is on the P&L close enough to act on what the audit finds.

The wrong fit is the operator who wants a polished deck for the board and no intention of running the fixes. We say so in the scoping call — the same way we'd want a vendor to say so to us.

Question 2

Which KPIs do you measure, and how?

Accepted Answer

Three numbers, committed in writing, against the baseline we build from your own ERP / WMS / OMS in week two: inventory turnover (annualized, at the SKU level), stockout frequency (per-SKU-class, weighted by sales), and logistics spend per unit (total inbound + outbound cost per unit shipped). Those three numbers — and their named owners — carry through the entire engagement.

The baseline is built from your data, not industry medians. Directional benchmarks we move are order accuracy, carrying cost as a percent of GMV, and dock-to-stock time — measured at the start, measured at the close, signed in the control plan.

Question 3

How long does an engagement take?

Accepted Answer

A fixed-scope audit runs four to six weeks: two weeks on the floor and at the data, two weeks on the baseline and finding register, one to two weeks on the report and the leadership-team read-out. The engagement ends at the read-out — execution stays with your team.

An implementation project runs twelve to twenty-four weeks: four to six weeks of audit, eight to twenty weeks of fixes — cycle-count program, DC re-slot, carrier renegotiation, control plan. The engagement ends when the plan is signed, not when the deck is delivered.

Question 4

What does the deliverable look like, and what stays with us?

Accepted Answer

Fixed-scope audit: the current-state map, the SKU-level KPI baseline, the prioritized finding register, the remediation roadmap with owners and milestones, the written report, and the leadership read-out deck. The operator keeps all of it.

Implementation project: everything in a fixed-scope audit, plus the cycle-count program run-in, the DC re-slot supervised on the floor, the carrier / 3PL renegotiation playbook (including an in-flight RFx when the math says to replace), and a written commitment against the week-two baseline, signed in the control plan.

Question 5

What does it cost, and does it require a deposit?

Accepted Answer

Fixed fee per scope, not hourly billing. A fixed-scope audit is priced against the number of sites, SKUs, and 3PL relationships in scope, with a clear ceiling on what changes it. Implementation projects are priced against the gross savings target — so the incentive lines up with yours.

Engagements split into two payments: one to open the engagement and schedule the on-floor work, the balance on delivery of the report / control plan. No per-seat math, no surprise change orders, no retroactive upsells once the baseline is in. The exact terms come out of the scoping call, in writing, before any invoice is sent.

The five questions
we hear before
a scoping call.

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The five questionswe hear beforea scoping call.