Published in Supply Chain Digest, March, 2012 ghost written for Jim Preuninger

Particularly among retailers with tens of thousands of SKUs and many hundreds of stores, there is a need for differentiated replenishment and logistics treatments across complex supply chains. For example, an organization may need supply chain processes that are specialized to goods with unpredictable demand, such as the latest fashion. The same organization may also provide goods with more predictable demand that require steady replenishment. Similarly, other goods may have higher import and export compliance requirements that must be carefully managed.

As organizations divide their product lines and SKUs into segments based on factors such as criticality, selling cycle and rate of sales, they are increasingly interested in global trade management (GTM) solutions that are flexible enough to support these segmentation strategies. GTM solutions must adapt to address the different needs of multiple supply chains within the same software system and shared network of suppliers, logistics
providers and customers.