A Governed Method to Reduce Working Capital in Distribution
Begin with a reconciled baseline and a decision boundary. CEOs,
operations, supply-chain, warehouse and finance leaders should agree what is controlled, which records
establish identity, how exceptions are contained and who authorises release or change.
Design the exception path before the dashboard. Decide what happens
when identity is missing, a transaction is late, two sources conflict, an interface fails or an approver is
unavailable. Each override needs a reason, accountable authority, affected scope and expiry.
Measurement and pilot acceptance
Measure receivable days, payable days, inventory days, cash conversion
cycle, overdue exposure, verified cash release with approved formulas, units, periods and sources. Run normal,
rejected, corrected and replayed transactions. Scale only after operators, managers, finance and IT accept
usability, accuracy, reconciliation, recovery and support.
Data readiness and ownership
Profile customer orders, supplier commitments, inventory, receivables,
payables, credit limits, due dates, collections, payments, cash assumptions, disputes and reconciled
accounting balances for missing identifiers, duplicates, inactive values, inconsistent units, ambiguous
ownership and unreconciled balances. Preserve discrepancies as issues instead of forcing an artificial
balance.