The Shrink Team

The problem

Nobody owns this problem, because it does not fit one department.

Shrink is booked as a loss in operations but caused upstream. It is a demand-forecasting and buy-decision problem spread across purchasing, operations and finance.

Because the loss and the cause sit in different departments, nobody owns it.

• Cross-functional: purchasing, operations, finance.
• Requires interoperability across ordering, receiving, POS and GL.
• No single source of truth on cause; no single owner of the outcome.

Sub-teams

A team is not flat. It has units, and units have squads.

Like a football team: an offense, a defense, a coaching staff, a scouting operation and a front office — and inside each, specialist squads. Pick a unit, then open a squad to see what it enacts and who is in it.

A resume, not a feature list

What one member is actually accountable for.

Buying & Replenishment Advocate

Wes Carter

Responsibilities

• Sets buy quantities and timing against the current forecast and remaining shelf life.
• Flags buys that will become waste before they are placed.
• Holds the standing view of exposure by item and site.

Decides alone

• Quantity changes inside approved tolerance.
• Timing shifts within the order window.
• Substitution to an approved equivalent item.

Escalates to a human

• Any change to a vendor commitment or minimum.
• Buys that would breach a service-level floor.
• Site-level exceptions that repeat three cycles running.

Measured on

• Waste dollars avoided against baseline.
• Service level held while waste falls.
• Forecast-to-buy alignment.

Works with

Item-Level Demand Analyst · Shrink Auditor · Store Operations Sentinel · Loss Recovery Planner

Capabilities

What the team does, week after week.

• Loss located by cause, not by cost center.
• Item- and site-level demand reading.
• Buy quantity and timing recommendations against shelf life.
• Handling, rotation and receiving signal monitoring.
• Weekly recovery plan with expected dollars.
• The same team generalizes to inventory optimization beyond food service.

Price list

Fixed price per job. Guaranteed result.

Prices are shown as units. Figures are set on your signed price list. Price placeholder

• Shrink cause audit

  Shrink Auditor

  Loss attributed to cause with evidence.

  TBD per site / cycle

• Item-site forecast

  Item-Level Demand Analyst

  Forecast inside stated tolerance.

  TBD per site / month

• Buy recommendation

  Buying & Replenishment Advocate

  Buy plan holding service level with lower exposure.

  TBD per category / week

• Weekly recovery plan

  Loss Recovery Planner

  Actions with expected recovery, tracked to result.

  TBD per site / week

• Inventory optimization

  Full team

  Working-capital reduction at held service level.

  TBD per network / cycle