Rod Daugherty

Rod Daugherty

Rod Daugherty is the vice president of product strategy for Blue Ridge, a supply chain solution.

Rod oversees product direction. For the last 21 years, Rod has been a consultant, designer, and product executive for multiple supply chain software companies including E3, JDA, Evant, Manhattan Associates, and Blue Ridge. He can be reached at rod.daugherty@blueridgeglobal.com.

Keeping Up With Customer Demand Through Data-Driven Forecasting

Fine-tuning inventory levels to meet changing customer preferences is a constant battle for wholesalers, and today’s fast-moving omnichannel environment is making that calculus even more complex. As they develop their purchasing plans, businesses are facing a bevy of uncertainties: E-commerce now accounts for 10 percent of total retail sales, requiring organizations across nearly every industry…

Tariffs and Inflation: A Good Time to Forward-Buy Inventory? (Part 2)

In part one of this series, I looked at how retailers can and should prepare to forward-buy inventory, the pros and cons of the practice, and the factors (i.e., inflation, tariffs) that led the industry to this point. The Tariff Effect Technology is the only way to effectively gauge demand volatility, react and re-plan for…

Tariffs and Inflation: A Good Time to Forward-Buy Inventory? (Part 1)

"Buy low, sell high" … If you took anything away from any Economics class, that’s probably it. Now that President Trump’s import tariffs have pushed inflation to the highest level in six years, many retailers and distributors are putting that strategy into play. In cases where suppliers pre-announce a price increase or promotion on a…

Automate Processes for Better Inventory Forecasting

“What decisions can technology manage better than humans?” should be the question that drives your internal operational process. For example, is there a way to automate internally transferring inventory already in your supply chain to locations in need? What about building orders to supplier minimums or logistics constraints? Can allocation of insufficient quantities be taken…