Inventory Projections

We trade files, and we can give the vendor our product needs a year ahead of actual sales. We’re moving toward a system in which our top vendors can see our data via the Internet and help us to forecast up the supply chain. JDA offers such a collaboration system, and we’re looking at that for 2003.

CS: With 70,000 SKUs, however, won’t that be a huge endeavor?
Zientarski: Not really; 40 of our vendors account for 90 percent of our product sales. We have about 300 vendors in all.