Unleash Your Inner Two-Year-Old
7 April 2026
Supply Chain Tools vs. People
8 April 2026Software That Hits The Spot
For the first twenty years of our existence, we at Sequoia waited—somewhat impatiently—for the software industry to produce a credible, mathematically sound inventory‑targeting system. We assumed the big players would get there eventually. SAP? Not interested. Oracle? No movement. IBM? Silent. We even partnered with Manugistics for a year; they were enthusiastic, but after a three‑year development queue and a JDA acquisition, the trail went cold.
So, while working with PepsiCo Worldwide Flavours, we did what any pragmatic supply‑chain consultancy would do when the market refuses to deliver: we built the system ourselves. Someone had to.
Why It Matters
Most components of an inventory target are straightforward. Cycle Stock, for example, is simply half your batch size. But Safety Stock is another matter entirely. It’s a statistical calculation that many organisations misinterpret or oversimplify. When Safety Stock becomes “the extra bit we add to make the numbers look right,” you lose control of working capital and service performance.
Every so often there’s a spreadsheet wizard who gives it a valiant attempt. But even then, the common trap is confusing statistical confidence limits with service targets. (For the statisticians among us: what’s required is a partial‑expectation calculation.) And that’s before you even get to the real-world complications—intermittent demand, long transit times, and the messy realities of global supply chains.
Building What The Industry Wouldn't
Fortunately, the world changed. Software became easier to build. Web services matured. And we invested heavily in the skills to take advantage of both. Instead of the old model—armies of field support engineers—we could now deliver highly interactive, graphical, web‑enabled tools.
Crucially, we built OnTarget with PepsiCo’s live inventory teams, not from an ivory tower. Their day‑to‑day challenges shaped the design, ensuring the system solved real problems rather than theoretical ones.
Introducing OnTarget®
Since launch, OnTarget has been eagerly adopted by FMCG organisations across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, supporting both Finished Goods and Raw Materials. It gives Inventory Managers a complete, end‑to‑end view of the parameters driving working capital, enabling targeted improvement initiatives across Conformance to Plan, Forecast Value Add, Lot Sizes, and Lead Times.
PepsiCo have already taken the next step—using OnTarget to optimise SKU deployment by accurately modelling the SKU‑by‑SKU implications of centralised versus distributed stockholding.
Lighting a Dark Corner of the Inventory World
Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, famously said: “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” We wouldn’t dream of comparing our achievements to his, but we do share the sentiment. The FMCG inventory world had a dark corner that no one seemed willing to illuminate.
So, we lit a candle.
And that candle is OnTarget.
Visit the OnTarget website to find out more.
More Insights
