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Bringing together leaders in industry and technology to drive innovation.
Matthew Wright
Founder & CEO
About Matthew
Matthew Wright is the founder & CEO of Specright, the first cloud-based platform for Specification Management. Specright has been recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor, received the Salesforce Innovation Award and was named one of the Top Places to Work by the OC Register and Built in LA. Wright is also a published author and his book, “The Evolution of Products and Packaging,”was named to the Amazon Hot New Release List for Industrial Relations Business and has a five star rating.

Prior to founding Specright, Wright spent more than 25 years in the packaging industry, holding leadership positions at International Paper, Temple Inland, and rightPAQ — a packaging company he co-founded. He has also been involved in leading multiple M&A deals in the packaging industry and sits on the Packaging Advisory Board at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.
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SKU Rationalization - Easily Consolidate SKUs with Specright

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Join us for the industry-leading Specification Management conference. Learn more about the most recent Summit in January 2023 in Nashville, TN, and stay tuned for more information about Specification Management Summit 2024!

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Specright partners with the leading Packaging Academia programs in the U.S., enabling the future workforce with hands-on experience to its Specification Data Management platform.

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Blog

SKU Rationalization - Easily Consolidate SKUs with Specright

Posted on 
Laura Foti
CMO, Specright
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Blog

SKU Rationalization - Easily Consolidate SKUs with Specright

Posted on 
Laura Foti
CMO, Specright
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Why Retailers Are Starting to Pay Attention to Specifications

What is SKU Rationalization?

SKU (stock keeping unit) rationalization is the process by which companies reduce their number of SKUs by consolidating duplicate or similar SKUs or specifications across their product lines, improving inventory management and enabling benefits such as inventory costs savings, operational efficiencies, and improved profitability. 

While the term isn’t new, the impact of SKU proliferation on supply chains has started to take a toll as business leaders look for new ways to drive efficiencies and cost optimizations, and improve their bottom line.

As a result, many are turning to SKU optimization but aren’t sure where to start.

Why SKU Proliferation is a Problem

Customer demand for product variety has resulted in an explosion of SKUs – and a constantly growing product catalog for brands to manage. But it’s a struggle to manage the consumer demand for variety along with the potential for market cannibalization. Furthermore, these executives are typically managing other challenges related to cost of goods and margin issues related to labor costs, carrying costs, cash flow, and the challenge of getting enough shelf space from retailers. 

The reality is, many components of products can be reused, but the challenge is, most product development professionals don’t have visibility at the spec-level of existing products. Finding the right product mix while optimizing for SKU counts is nearly impossible without this level of data. 

The key to developing a SKU rationalization process is having the right data for decision-making when it comes to supply chain management.

SKU Rationalization Starts with Specifications

Many procurement executives leading the charge on decision-making related to SKU rationalization initiatives typically assemble teams and spreadsheets for a months-long numbers crunching exercise. 

They are chasing data like historical sales data, holding costs, lead times, and other metrics to understand how sales channels are performing. 

With a spec-first approach to SKU rationalization, procurement and marketing executives can holistically evaluate products at the component level – for example, maybe they can consolidate raw materials across product lines and perform product rationalization at the spec-level. This enables them to maintain a marketing strategy that relies on a higher number of total SKUs, but re-uses similar items that don’t differentiate the product. This type of SKU analysis is only possible when you digitize specifications – raw materials, packaging, formulas, ingredients.

But once these manual SKU rationalizations are complete, the results are temporary as new products and specifications are constantly being created and updated, further putting pressure on supply chains. To enable optimization and improve profitability by creating a scalable, ongoing approach to SKU rationalization, organizations must deal with the root cause of the problem: a lack of specification management.

To learn more about how to implement a successful and ongoing SKU rationalization program, download our Executive Briefing.

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About 
Laura Foti

Laura leads marketing and investor relations at Specright. Prior to Specright, she led advertising and analytics at GE Digital, GE’s Industrial Internet software business. Before that, she was a consultant at Deloitte Digital working in enterprise digital transformation, where she helped clients design and deploy eCommerce experiences, develop revenue-driving mobile apps, and reimagine their global digital marketing strategy. Laura was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for marketing and advertising and Brand Innovators 40 Under 40 and 100 Women to Watch lists. She graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She resides in Newport Beach, CA.

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With Specright’s Solution Suite, you can digitize, centralize, and link your specification data to drive efficiencies, intelligence, traceability, and collaboration within your organization and across your supply chain network.
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