Inventory Optimisation for New Zealand
Right product. Right place. Right quantity. Right cost.
Most New Zealand businesses know their inventory isn't optimised — there's too much of some things, not enough of others, and nobody is confident the settings in the ERP are right. The problem isn't lack of effort — it's that analysing tens of thousands of SKUs across raw materials and finished goods, keeping segmentation current, and translating strategy into daily replenishment decisions is beyond what spreadsheets and manual processes can sustain.
Synergic Technologies has delivered inventory optimisation across 7+ New Zealand businesses — from building products and fashion to import distribution and retail. We analyse your portfolio, align your inventory policies with your business strategy, and produce ERP-ready settings that drive better daily decisions.
Why Inventory Optimisation?
Inventory is one of the largest investments on most balance sheets — and one of the least actively managed. Products get set up in the ERP with default planning parameters, and those parameters rarely get reviewed as the business changes. Over time, the gap between what the system thinks should happen and what the business actually needs grows wider.
The result: excess stock tying up working capital, stockouts losing sales and damaging customer relationships, write-offs from slow-moving and obsolete inventory, and expedited freight to cover gaps that shouldn't exist.
Your Inventory Settings Are Out of Date
Products were set up in the ERP months or years ago with default or best-guess planning parameters. As demand patterns shift, lead times change, and the product range evolves, those settings drift further from reality — but nobody has time to review thousands of SKUs manually.
You Can’t See Which Products Are Costing You Money
Without proper segmentation, all products are treated the same. High-margin fast-movers get the same replenishment logic as slow-moving tail items. There’s no visibility into which SKUs are driving value and which are consuming working capital, warehouse space, and management attention for minimal return.
Your Raw Materials and Finished Goods Aren’t Connected
Raw material purchasing happens in one silo, production planning in another, and finished goods replenishment in a third. FIFO discipline breaks down, waste increases, and there’s no end-to-end view of inventory investment from inbound materials through to customer-ready stock.
From Strategy to ERP — Four Dimensions of Inventory Optimisation
Most inventory optimisation approaches address one or two dimensions — typically segmentation or replenishment parameters. Our approach covers all four, connecting your business strategy through to daily operational decisions in your ERP.
Strategic Alignment
Your inventory strategy should reflect your business strategy — not the other way around. We start by understanding your market position, growth plans, service level commitments, working capital targets, and supply chain constraints. This sets the framework for every decision that follows.
Product Segmentation
Not all products deserve the same treatment. We analyse your full portfolio — raw materials and finished goods — across multiple dimensions (turnover, margin, cost, demand variability, lead time) to segment every SKU into the right category. This segmentation drives differentiated policies rather than one-size-fits-all rules.
Inventory Policies by SKU
Each segment gets the right inventory policy — safety stock levels, reorder points, order quantities, FIFO requirements, and review cycles calibrated to the product’s actual characteristics. The result is SKU-level precision rather than category-level averages.
Operational Settings in ERP
Policies are only valuable when they’re operational. We produce ERP-ready planning parameters — formatted for upload to your system — so that daily make, buy, and stocking decisions are driven by optimised settings, not outdated defaults. Works with any ERP system.
Consulting-led, not software-led.
This is not a SaaS subscription — it's a consulting engagement that produces operational results. We use Stringent©, our proprietary inventory optimisation tool, to do the heavy lifting: analysing tens of thousands of SKUs, running scenarios, and producing ERP-ready output. But the value is in the methodology, the business understanding, and the implementation — not in the software itself.
Two-Phase Methodology
Every inventory optimisation engagement follows a structured two-phase approach. Phase 1 can run standalone for businesses that need strategic clarity before committing to full optimisation. Phase 2 produces the ERP-ready settings.
Inventory Alignment Strategy (iAS)
We assess your current inventory position, segment your product portfolio, and align your inventory strategy with your business strategy. The output is a segmentation report, gap analysis, and prioritised action plan — including identification of immediate opportunities (SKUs to rationalise, overstocked items to clear, underserved products to replenish).
Typical duration: 6–8 weeks
Inventory Policy and Replenishment Settings (iPARS)
Building on the iAS, we optimise planning parameters at SKU level — safety stock, reorder points, order quantities, and review cycles — and produce settings ready for upload to your ERP system. Includes a control panel for scenario testing so you can model the impact of changes before committing.
Typical duration: 6–8 weeks
Total engagement: 10–14 weeks for SME implementations. Can be scoped as Phase 1 only, Phase 2 only (if segmentation exists), or both phases together.
What Inventory Optimisation Delivers
Results from delivered engagements across New Zealand businesses:
17–48%
Reduction in Working Capital Demand
Right-sized inventory across the portfolio — less cash tied up in stock that isn’t earning its keep.
Up to 80%
Reduction in Customer Backorders
Better availability where it matters — the right products in the right place at the right time.
23–43%
Reduction in Storage and 3PL Costs
Fewer pallets, less warehouse space, lower third-party logistics costs — direct savings to the bottom line.
Up to 100%
GMROI Improvement on Individual SKUs
Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment — more margin from every dollar invested in stock.
Across 7+ delivered engagements, results include a building products company achieving 17% sales increase alongside 26% inventory reduction, a fashion brand delivering 33% inventory reduction with 79% lead time improvement, and an import distributor releasing 35% of working capital with 43% reduction in 3PL storage costs.
Inventory Optimisation Across Industries
Inventory optimisation applies to any business that buys, makes, or stocks products. The methodology is consistent — the application varies by industry.
Manufacturing
Raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods — three layers of inventory that need to work together. Inventory optimisation connects your procurement, production, and despatch — ensuring materials arrive when needed, WIP is minimised, and finished goods match customer demand. FIFO discipline and waste reduction are built into the policy settings.
Distribution & Wholesale
Multi-location replenishment, supplier lead time variability, and the challenge of stocking thousands of SKUs across warehouses. Inventory optimisation determines what to hold where, in what quantity, and when to reorder — replacing gut-feel purchasing with data-driven parameters.
Retail
Product range complexity, seasonal demand, promotional stock builds, and the constant pressure to turn inventory faster. Inventory optimisation segments your range so fast-movers never stock out and slow-movers don’t consume capital and shelf space they haven’t earned.
FMCG & Consumer Goods
Shelf-life management, promotional demand variability, and the cost of getting it wrong in grocery retail. Inventory optimisation reduces write-offs from expired stock, improves on-shelf availability, and connects inventory investment to trade spend and promotional planning.
Our Inventory Optimisation Approach
Every inventory optimisation engagement follows our ALIGN → PILOT → SCALE-UP approach — reverse-engineered from your business outcomes.
ALIGN
We assess your current inventory performance, understand your business strategy and constraints, and scope the engagement. For many businesses, this starts with our Inventory Alignment Strategy (iAS) — a structured assessment that produces a segmentation report and improvement roadmap.
PILOT
We configure the optimisation tool with your data, run scenarios, and pilot the new settings with a representative product subset. The business validates the output before anything changes in the ERP.
SCALE-UP
Full rollout across the portfolio — all product groups, all locations. ERP-ready settings are uploaded, the team is trained on interpretation and ongoing refresh, and we provide support to ensure the new parameters are delivering results.
Investment
Inventory optimisation engagements typically range from $25K to $50K NZD, depending on portfolio complexity, number of SKUs, and data readiness. Engagements include both phases (iAS + iPARS) with ERP-ready output.
Phase 1 (iAS) can be scoped standalone for businesses that want to start with a strategic assessment before committing to full optimisation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who provides inventory optimisation consulting in New Zealand?+
Synergic Technologies has delivered inventory optimisation across 7+ New Zealand businesses — from building products and fashion to import distribution and retail. We deliver end-to-end inventory consulting: portfolio assessment, SKU-level segmentation, inventory policy optimisation, ERP-ready replenishment settings, and ongoing refresh support. Our proprietary methodology covers four dimensions — strategic alignment, product segmentation, inventory policies, and operational ERP settings — connecting business strategy to daily decisions.
What is inventory optimisation?+
Inventory optimisation is the process of determining the right inventory levels for every product in your portfolio — balancing service levels, working capital, storage costs, and waste. It goes beyond simple min/max settings to consider demand variability, lead times, margin, product lifecycle stage, and your business strategy. The output is SKU-level planning parameters that drive better daily purchasing, production, and stocking decisions.
How much does inventory optimisation cost in New Zealand?+
Inventory optimisation engagements typically range from $25K to $50K NZD, depending on portfolio complexity and data readiness. This covers strategic assessment, SKU-level analysis, policy optimisation, and ERP-ready output. Phase 1 (strategic assessment and segmentation) can be scoped standalone for businesses wanting to start with a diagnostic.
How long does inventory optimisation take?+
A typical engagement runs 10–14 weeks across two phases. Phase 1 (Inventory Alignment Strategy) takes 6–8 weeks and produces segmentation and a strategic roadmap. Phase 2 (Inventory Policy and Replenishment Settings) takes 6–8 weeks and produces ERP-ready parameters. Phases can overlap or run sequentially depending on business needs.
What ERP systems does inventory optimisation work with?+
Our inventory optimisation methodology is ERP-agnostic. We produce planning parameters in standard formats that can be uploaded to any ERP system — SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, MYOB, Xero (with inventory), NetSuite, Cin7, or any other system that accepts master data updates. No integration or API connection is required.
What is the difference between inventory optimisation and S&OP?+
Inventory optimisation focuses specifically on getting the right stock levels for every SKU — segmentation, policy setting, and replenishment parameters. S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) is a broader planning process that aligns demand, supply, and financial plans across the business. Inventory optimisation is often deployed alongside S&OP as part of a broader planning transformation.
Ready to Optimise Your Inventory?
Whether you need a strategic assessment to understand where the opportunities are, or a full engagement to produce ERP-ready settings across your portfolio — talk to us about what you're trying to achieve.