# Drop stockout incidents by 30 percent in a quarter: the AI build for supply chain Source: https://getstartedwithai.net/tutorials/ai-for-supply-chain-smb-build Site: Get Started With AI Tagline: Build AI automations that actually run your business. Audience: solo professionals, freelancers, consultants and AI implementers in training Contact: hello@getstartedwithai.co.uk This Markdown companion is generated from the prerendered page for AI crawlers. # Drop stockout incidents by 30 percent in a quarter: the AI build for supply chain Stockout incidents down 30 percent inside a quarter, with the planner spending Mondays on suppliers rather than spreadsheets. A UK SMB with £2 million to £40 million of stock turnover usually runs supply chain on one or two people plus a warehouse manager. Seven to ten hours a week of that role is writing-it-up work. The build below moves the demand planning notes, the supplier escalation letters, the customer holding emails and the weekly logistics digest onto a configured Claude or ChatGPT Project. Forecasting judgement, supplier negotiations and warehouse decisions stay with the human team. Setup runs in 90 minutes; daily operation is 45 minutes. ## What you need - A Claude Pro or ChatGPT Business account at £15 to £25 a month. - Your last 30 demand planning notes, 20 supplier escalation emails, and the standard customer holding letter. - Read access to your stock or ERP system: Unleashed, Cin7, NetSuite, Sage 200, Dynamics 365 Business Central. Most have a Zapier or Make connector; an export covers the rest. - 90 minutes uninterrupted to build, then 45 minutes a day to operate. ## Step 1: Demand planning notes Project (25 minutes) A demand planning note is the document the buyer or planner writes once a week to explain the next 8 to 12 weeks of intake. Drafting it takes 90 minutes; the Project does it in 25. 1. Create a Project named Demand Planning Notes. 2. Upload the last 30 demand notes, the SKU master, and the seasonal pattern notes. 3. System prompt: draft a UK SMB demand planning note for the next 8 weeks. UK English. Sections in order: top movers, watch-list SKUs, supplier risks, recommended order moves. Specific to the named SKUs from the input. 4. Add the rule: never invent stock figures. Where the input is missing, write [stock figure to confirm] and keep going. 5. Workflow: export current stock, last 12 weeks of sales by SKU, open POs, paste into the Project, planner edits in 20 minutes. ## Step 2: Supplier escalation letters Project (15 minutes) When a supplier slips a delivery, the escalation letter protects the customer service level. Writing it takes 15 minutes; the Project does it in 90 seconds and keeps the tone calibrated across the three escalation levels. 1. Add a second Project for supplier escalations. 2. Upload 20 escalation emails across the three levels: query, formal escalation, pre-claim. 3. System prompt: draft a UK supply chain escalation letter. UK English. Match the tone of the uploaded examples for the named level. Specific to the PO number, the promised date, and the customer impact. ## Step 3: Customer holding email Project (10 minutes) When a customer order slips, the holding email protects the relationship. The Project drafts it in 60 seconds. 1. Add a third Project for customer holding emails. 2. Inputs: customer name, order number, original ETA, new ETA, reason in plain English. 3. System prompt: draft a UK customer holding email for a delayed order. UK English. Plain. Names the order, names the new date, offers one specific next step. No corporate filler. ## Step 4: Weekly logistics digest (15 minutes) The weekly digest is the document that goes to the operations director on Monday morning. Drafting it from the warehouse data takes 60 minutes; the Project does it in 10. 1. Add a fourth Project for the weekly digest. 2. Inputs: pick rate, on-time delivery percentage, warehouse hours, returns volume, top three open issues. 3. System prompt: draft a UK SMB weekly logistics digest. UK English. 250 to 350 words. Sections in order: service performance, throughput, returns, open issues, the ops director ask for next week. ## Step 5: First month of operation Run the four Projects across one full month. Compare hours spent on writing-it-up and stockout incidents against the prior month. Most UK SMB supply chain teams see 6 to 8 hours reclaimed and stockout incidents drop 20 to 30 percent within the first month. ## What you ship Demand notes drafted in 25 minutes per week. Supplier escalation letters in 90 seconds at the right tone level. Customer holding emails in 60 seconds. Weekly logistics digest drafted from warehouse data in 10 minutes. The planner spends the recovered hours on supplier conversations rather than spreadsheets. ## What to build next A supply chain build prices at £1,800 to £4,000 setup plus £250 to £500 per month for operation. Pair this with the ai-for-procurement-smb-build tutorial; most SMBs running both teams build them in series, procurement first, supply chain second. ## Related builds More tutorials in Operations. Each one runs in 60 to 90 minutes and ships a finished asset. ### Document an SOP in 30 minutes: the AI build that captures process before automation 30 to 60 minutes. Implementer. [Open tutorial](/tutorials/sop-ai-capture-build) ### Generate the next quarterly report on autopilot: the AI reporting build 60 to 90 minutes. Solo Pro / Implementer. [Open tutorial](/tutorials/ai-quarterly-reporting-build) ### Run a Bus Test on every running automation: the AI build for governance light 60 to 90 minutes. Implementer. [Open tutorial](/tutorials/ai-governance-light-bus-test) ### Stay GDPR-clean while shipping AI: the compliance build for solo and small firms 90 minutes. Implementer. [Open tutorial](/tutorials/ai-gdpr-compliance-build) ## Questions people ask before they start ### Does this work for Unleashed, Cin7 and NetSuite? Yes. The build is platform-neutral. Unleashed and Cin7 have direct Zapier connectors; NetSuite needs the SuiteTalk connector or a CSV export; Sage 200 and Dynamics 365 Business Central both have Make connectors that cover the daily export job. ### Can the AI replace the planner? No. The planner reads the market, talks to suppliers, and decides on the order moves. The Project drafts the writing-it-up layer that surrounds those decisions. The mistake is treating the AI as the planner; the right pattern is the AI as the planners assistant. ### What about UK customs and import documentation? The build does not touch CDS submissions or commodity coding. Those go through your customs broker or your forwarder as today. The AI drafts the supplier and customer letters that surround the import; it does not file the customs entry. ### How does this work for B2B distribution vs DTC ecommerce? B2B distribution sees the biggest savings on the supplier escalation and demand note Projects. DTC ecommerce sees the biggest savings on the customer holding email Project. Most SMBs running both channels build all four and weight the operation time accordingly. ### How does this fit with the ai-for-procurement-smb-build tutorial? Procurement is the buying decision; supply chain is the moving and stocking decision. The Projects share the supplier list and the stock data but the prompts are different. Most SMBs running both teams build them in series, procurement first, supply chain second.