Supply chain software has always lived in two separate worlds. Planning systems create the strategy. Execution systems carry it out. These worlds speak different languages, creating an environment that drives freight costs and service failures.
When inventory recommendations become executable — meaning they account for real-world constraints like transportation costs, storage and dock capacity — three specific improvements follow:
These improvements have eluded most organizations because planning systems operate without execution context. For example, once a stock transfer order (STO) is created, most systems will treat it like it cannot be changed. In reality, just by diverting or moving inventory, stockouts and expedites can be avoided and inventory holding costs can be kept low.
A planning system might identify that you need 500 units moved from Dallas to Chicago to prevent a stockout next week. The math checks out. The fill rate targets are protected. But the planning system doesn’t know that 500 units means two pallets. Nobody ships two pallets in a full truckload — the cost would be too high. So the recommendation sits there, theoretically perfect but practically useless.
Orders and stock transfers get locked in place the moment they’re created. When conditions shift (and they always do), these plans can’t adjust. Supply chain teams know the scramble that follows — Excel worksheets, emergency freight, and manual interventions that consume most of the workday.
For the past decade, the industry has invested heavily in visibility platforms. You can track shipments, monitor yard congestion, predict ETAs. But knowing where inventory sits doesn’t tell you what to do when plans start breaking.
Consider a food and beverage company supplying quick-service restaurants. Their MRP system generates stock transfer orders without knowing that their 3PL can only process 50 loads per day. When the system schedules 55 loads, everything backs up. Those five extra loads mean delays, expedited freight, or unhappy customers. The planning system never knew this constraint existed.
FourKites’ Inventory Twin bridges planning and execution without trying to make either system something it’s not. Planning systems shouldn’t worry about daily shift patterns impacting dock schedules. Execution systems shouldn’t forecast demand.
The system operates in the “execution window” — typically the next 30 to 90 days, where plans have already been converted into orders and stock transfers. Within this window, it continuously evaluates whether plans remain executable against real constraints: storage, customer orders changes, product plan changes.
When a planned stock transfer forces a change to existing plans and orders, teams are alerted and given alternative options that solve for risks coming from real-time changes and disruptions. Those two pallets can join an existing LTL shipment. A safety stock replenishment can shift by a day to free up dock space for a customer order. If Location A won’t have inventory when the truck arrives, the system diverts the transfer to Location B and executes the change through integrated workflows.
Making these improvements work requires technology that can bridge multiple systems, understand complex relationships, and act on real-time data. The Inventory Twin builds on FourKites’ decade-long foundation of processing millions of daily supply chain events across road, rail, ocean, and air — creating the context needed for intelligent decisions.
Unlike traditional control towers that require months of master data cleansing, FourKites builds intelligence from the transactions already flowing through your systems. Every entity becomes a node in the network: product, supplier, customer, order, shipment. When your ERP calls a customer “Walmart DC 6507” but your TMS calls it “WHM-Dallas-01,” the system recognizes they’re the same and consolidates them automatically. This approach delivers faster implementation and maintains coherence across disconnected systems.
The system moves beyond calculated inventory positions to actual physical reality. Through partners like Chorus, providing smart label technology and other IoT providers, you get real-time telemetry at the package level. While most companies count inventory quarterly (monthly if they’re diligent), smart labels tell you exactly what’s where right now for accurate decisions and working capital optimization.
Every recommendation factors in real operational constraints: minimum shipment sizes, available transportation modes and costs, fill rates, dock schedules, and warehouse capacity limits. The system evaluates total costs, including expediting, storage overages, and service failures. This ensures recommendations are executable, not just mathematically optimal.
The Inventory Twin is easily deployed and sits on top of existing technology and system architectures, meaning that lengthy IT projects involving templates and unstructured data aren’t required. Unlike monolithic supply chain transformations that require years and wholesale process changes, FourKites’ modular approach lets you prove value quickly and expand based on results. Most organizations start by connecting their primary ERP and TMS, then add warehouse systems and 3PL integrations as they see impact.
The business case centers on preventing the specific failures outlined earlier: eliminating shipments of partial pallets at full truckload rates, preventing dock congestion from exceeding daily capacity limits, and avoiding stockouts when inventory exists elsewhere in the network. While specific results vary by network complexity and current operational efficiency, the impact is measurable through existing KPIs like expedited freight spend, OTIF performance, and inventory turns.
Implementation requires minimal IT resources since FourKites connects through existing APIs and data feeds you’re already generating. The system learns from your transaction patterns rather than requiring extensive master data projects. Your planning team continues using familiar tools while gaining visibility into whether their recommendations are executable.
For supply chain leaders evaluating whether this approach fits their organization, consider these questions:
If these challenges resonate, let’s talk.
