Sena reports how fast recorded purchase moved in each market, and where buyers went when a line had gone.
Inventory optimization decides how much to hold, where to hold it, and when to replenish. Three patterns push cover toward the wrong markets.
One target covers every market, because the evidence for varying it market by market has yet to arrive. Cover lands even across markets absorbing the category at different rates.
The cover model takes its demand side from shipment history, which records what a company managed to sell through whatever sat in the outlet at the time.
The cost of a gap depends on what the buyer did next: waited, took a competing line once, or moved permanently. The model usually carries an assumption where that answer belongs.
Sena is the decision AI with access to real-world data. It counts what consumers across a market purchased and records what each outlet held on the day, so the demand side of a cover model rests on the category itself.
Sena reports how fast recorded purchase moved in each market, indexed against the others, so service level varies with evidence behind it.
When a line ran absent, Sena records what buyers took in its place and whether they came back.
Sena reports movement per format, outlet type, and price tier, so the cover follows the part of the market that is moving.
A cover model balances the cost of holding stock against the cost of running short. Both sides of that trade need a demand figure, and the figure is usually the weakest input in the calculation.
Inventory optimization sets how much stock to hold, at which locations, and when to replenish, so that a service target is met at the lowest holding cost. It is a policy calculation, and it takes three inputs: demand, variability, and cost.
The mathematics is well established. The demand input is where the answer usually goes wrong.
Three levers set cover, and each one takes the same demand figure.
The buffer held against demand variability and supply variability. Rises with the service target and with how much demand moves around.
When to trigger a replenishment and how much to bring. Set against lead time and the rate demand consumes cover.
Which location holds what, and how scarce stock is split across markets when there is less than everyone wants.
The trade sits between two costs, and one of them is far easier to measure than the other.
Working capital, storage, obsolescence, and markdown. Measured precisely, from internal records.
The margin on a sale, and sometimes the buyer permanently. Measured as an assumption, applied uniformly.
The asymmetry pushes cover down. A measured cost argues against an estimated one in every review, so service targets drift toward the number the finance case can defend.
Four collected inputs build the demand side, applied per market.
Purchases across the category and their dates, so every player enters the demand side.
What each outlet held on the day, which dates the weeks a line ran absent.
The outlet as the run found it, dated and placed.
What buyers took when a line had gone, and whether they returned, which prices the gap.
Four conditions decide whether a cover decision holds through the period.
Category purchase measures demand. Shipments measure supply meeting demand.
Demand variability read off shipments includes the variability supply itself introduced.
Allocation splits a fixed quantity, so the ranking decides the outcome.
What buyers did during a gap is a measurable event, and pricing it from an assumption sets service targets by convention.
The demand side is what Sena reports. The policy itself stays with the planning system, and the two sit beside each other.
Sena supplies the demand side: recorded movement per market, the weeks a line ran absent, and where buyers went during them. Safety stock levels, reorder logic, allocation rules, and the policy calculation itself stay with the planning system, and Sena sets its answer beside them.
Real people share what they buy and prefer, under explicit consent. Sena captures it directly at the source, so every figure traces back to where it came from whenever a number comes under question.
Consented purchase supplies the demand side, and every capture carries the market and the day it was taken.
Recorded movement per market decides the ranking, so allocation rests on a figure the team can open.
What buyers took during a gap, and whether they returned, turns a shortage assumption into an observation.
Any market index opens onto the purchases and outlet photographs behind it.
A cover level carries weight only as far as the demand figure underneath it. Sena builds every figure from real-world signals captured when the question needs it, from consumers purchasing across the category through to the dated capture an allocation review opens.
Counts what buyers purchased across the category and when, including purchases made from every other player, so the demand side describes the market.
Reads what each outlet held off images captured in real outlets, which dates the weeks a line ran absent.
Signal arrives from the consumer network under explicit consent. What buyers took when a line had gone is stated by those buyers.
Shipment history, cover models, and service level exports join over 250+ integrations, so the policy calculation runs where it already runs.
Every market index holds its period and its capture dates, so a ranking reopens on the evidence behind it.
Historic cover models, allocation records, and movement exports load in, so every period the team has held sits together.
Four teams meet at the same holding decision, and each one needs a different cut of it before they can act.
The policy. Needs a demand figure the market itself produced.
The period. Needs each format and outlet type carrying its own rate.
The allocation argument. Needs evidence for which market earns the stock.
The working capital. Needs a shortage cost observed, where an assumption sets it today.
The same demand side, read against whatever each industry treats as a line.
Category movement per format and price tier, with the weeks a line ran absent attached.
Movement by specification and price band, against the upgrade timing buyers give.
Pack size movement at the counter, and where buyers went when one ran absent.
Handset lines moving through the outlets that sell the plan.
One mechanism, applied per market and per category. Each step is documented, which is what makes an allocation defensible.
Real contributors share what they buy and pay under explicit consent and record what each outlet held in the markets named.
Sena ranks markets on how fast recorded purchase moved, with the weeks a line ran absent alongside.
The cover model takes its demand side from that index, and the policy calculation runs in the planning system.
Most cover models take their demand side from the one series a company holds in full, which is its own shipment history. Sena measures the category that history sits inside.
| Capability area | Typical setup | Sena |
|---|---|---|
| The demand input | Own shipments and orders. | Purchase across the category, counted for every player in the market. |
| Demand variability | Read off a series supply shaped. | Read off recorded purchase, with availability separated. |
| Market ranking | Own volume, or an even split. | Recorded movement per market, indexed and dated. |
| Service level | One target across markets. | Varied per market, with a rate behind each. |
| Cost of a shortage | An assumption applied uniformly. | What buyers took during the gap, and whether they returned. |
| Level | Market total, split downward by rules. | Every format, outlet type, and tier has a rate of its own. |
| Auditing a ranking | A method appendix. | Click the index, and the purchases open beneath it. |
Three situations where a measured demand side changes a holding decision.
Rank the markets on recorded movement, so a fixed quantity goes where the category moves fastest.
Read what buyers took while a line was absent and whether they came back, so the shortage cost is an observation.
Set a target per market against how fast the category moved there, with the index open to its records.
A pointed cover level sets what each market holds. The four decisions below are what a supply chain team runs around it.
Every supply chain decision Sena answers, in one place
The period cover serves
Converts the demand series into a committed period.
Explore demand planning 02Which weeks were absent
Records what each outlet held, which dates every gap in the period.
Explore supply chain visibility 03The network holding it
Places the network around the demand the captures record.
Explore supply chain optimization 04Checking cover afterward
Places own movement next to what the market took in.
Explore supply chain analyticsThe walkthrough ranks markets on recorded category movement, dates the weeks a line ran absent, and opens what buyers took during them while the team watches.
Name the category and the markets splitting the quantity, and we will rank them on recorded movement.