Related Ideas
eyko Ideas
Obsolescence write-downs surface at year-end after the inventory is unsellable at full margin. An Inventory Obsolescence Prediction Playbook reads demand trajectory, product lifecycle, and channel signals to flag obsolescence risk months in advance, with the recovery actions priced and prioritized.
The Challenge
The standard slow-mover report fires when days-of-supply crosses a threshold months after the demand actually slowed. By then the inventory has aged, the channel partners have moved on, and the discount needed to clear it is materially deeper than the timely intervention would have required.
Product management decides when to phase out a SKU. Supply chain decides what inventory to buy. The two decisions rarely sync at the right cadence, so inventory keeps arriving after the product team has decided to phase the SKU out. The write-down is built into the order pipeline.
When obsolescence becomes obvious, the team considers discount, channel transfer, parts harvest, or scrap. Without a Playbook that prices each option in advance, the recovery decision happens late and converges on the easiest answer (discount) rather than the highest-recovery answer.
How eyko Solves It
An Inventory Obsolescence Prediction Playbook reads demand trajectory by SKU, product lifecycle stage, channel sell-through, substitute and successor product signals, and historical obsolescence-recovery outcomes to flag SKUs at obsolescence risk 3 to 9 months in advance. It sizes the expected write-down without action, prices the recovery options (discount, channel transfer, parts harvest, scrap) per SKU, and recommends the action mix that maximizes recovery dollars.
The Playbook scored 4,200 SKUs and flagged 142 at elevated obsolescence risk in the next 6 months, representing $3.2M in projected write-down without action. The top 12 SKUs alone carry $1.4M in exposure. Recovery options modeled across the flagged set show a $1.8M improvement vs default scrap recovery, with channel transfer and parts harvest carrying the strongest upside on specific SKU subsets.
| Metric | Current | Benchmark | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary indicator | Flagged | Target | Action needed |
| Secondary indicator | Monitoring | Within range | On track |
| Trend direction | Declining | Stable | Review required |
Inventory Obsolescence Prediction flags SKUs at elevated obsolescence risk 3 to 9 months in advance using demand trajectory, product lifecycle stage, channel sell-through, and successor-product signals. The Playbook sizes the expected write-down without action, prices the recovery options per SKU, and recommends the action mix that maximizes recovery dollars so finance and supply chain leadership decide on obsolescence outcomes proactively rather than absorbing the write-down at year-end.
Related Ideas
FAQ
Everything you need to know about Obsolescence Forecast.
Inventory Obsolescence Prediction is an AI-driven flagging of SKUs at elevated obsolescence risk 3 to 9 months in advance. The Playbook reads demand trajectory, product lifecycle stage, channel sell-through, and successor-product signals to surface at-risk inventory, sizes the expected write-down without action, prices the recovery options per SKU, and recommends the action mix that maximizes recovery dollars rather than defaulting to scrap.
The Playbook reads from your ERP or warehouse management system (inventory positions, days of supply, SKU lifecycle stage), sales system (demand trajectory by SKU, channel breakouts), product master data (successor SKU mapping, BOM for parts-harvest valuation), and channel sell-through data where available. At least 18 months of paired demand-trajectory-to-write-down data anchors the obsolescence model.
A slow-mover report fires when days-of-supply crosses a threshold after the demand slowdown has already played out. Inventory Obsolescence Prediction is forward-looking: it identifies SKUs trending toward obsolescence 3 to 9 months in advance using demand trajectory and successor-product signals, so the recovery decision can land while the value is still recoverable rather than after the inventory is unsellable at full margin.
Yes. For each flagged SKU the Playbook prices the recovery options (discount, channel transfer, parts harvest, scrap) and recommends the action mix that maximizes total recovery dollars. The recommendation includes the timing window where each action is viable (channel transfer requires that the partner has demand, discount requires clearance-friendly pricing) so leadership can move on the right action before the window closes.
Join the enterprises replacing weeks of manual analysis with a single prompt. See what eyko Playbooks can do with your data.
