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Real-Time Demand Forecasting in Retail Supply Chain

Client: Global retail chain with 1,500+ stores
Industry: Retail & eCommerce / Manufacturing & Logistics
Challenge:
Seasonal demand spikes were causing overstock and understock situations. Existing demand forecasting models required manual retraining and could not ingest live sales data, resulting in outdated predictions.

Solution:
We implemented a streaming data-based MLOps architecture that:

  • Integrated real-time POS data streams using Kafka
  • Enabled automated model retraining every 24 hours
  • Used A/B testing to compare forecasting models in production
  • Provided store managers with updated demand predictions via API

Results:

  • Forecasting accuracy improved by 18%
  • Reduced overstocking by 12% and understocking by 9%
  • Enabled store-level inventory optimization in near real-time

Key MLOps Features Used:
✅ Real-time data ingestion
✅ Continuous retraining & A/B testing
✅ API-based prediction serving