The Enterprise Edge · 2026-06-25 · 3 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
33 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Xavier Duprat, VP of Supply Chain Planning at Cascades, discusses how his organization is shifting from traditional supply chain metrics like OTIF (On-Time In-Full) to in-stock availability as the primary success measure. Cascades, in partnership with SAP and Alloy AI, discovered that optimizing for order fulfillment doesn't necessarily prevent stockouts on retail shelves - a critical insight that drove a fundamental change in how they measure supply chain performance. The episode highlights how visibility into lost sales and out-of-stock events directly protects revenue, especially important for private label suppliers where Cascades and retailers operate as aligned partners. This conversation is essential for supply chain leaders at manufacturers and distributors grappling with how to transition from transactional KPIs to customer-centric availability metrics, and for those evaluating AI-driven planning tools like Alloy AI to drive autonomous decision-making at scale.
Traditional OTIF (On-Time In-Full) metrics don't necessarily prevent stockouts on retail shelves, which directly impact lost sales and revenue. By measuring in-stock availability, Cascades can protect revenue and better serve retail partners as a preferred supplier.
A 2% improvement in in-stock drove significant organizational recognition and applause at their monthly tissue sector meeting, signaling a major shift in how supply chain success is now celebrated and valued across the company.
By exposing lost sales data, Cascades can quantify the direct revenue opportunity at stake when products are out of stock, creating urgency and justification for investments in autonomous planning and demand forecasting to keep products on shelves.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
There is one genuinely operational insight - the deliberate KPI pivot from OTIF to in-stock and the argument that OTIF compliance does not guarantee shelf availability - but it is stated rather than unpacked, and the clip is overwhelmed by sponsor thanks and intro/outro boilerplate. Far too little substantive content for a 3-minute runtime.
most of the time, this does not necessarily translate into out of stock
our success metric was, apart from profitability, etc., customer success, it was the OTIF. And today, it's the in-stock
The reframe from OTIF to retail in-stock as the primary vendor success metric is a mildly contrarian and practically grounded idea, but it is asserted rather than argued from first principles, and no novel framework or counterintuitive mechanism is offered.
it was a metric that was known by probably one or two percent. I didn't know about it
when you see your last sale, you're in stock, your opportunity to protect your revenue
Xavier Duprat is a genuine VP-level practitioner at a real consumer goods company (Cascades) and Joel Beal is a founder-CEO of a relevant AI company, so the credentials are legitimate; however the clip is far too short for their expertise to actually surface in any depth.
Xavier Duprat, Vice President, Supply Chain Planning and Fulfillment at Cascades
Joel Beal, CEO and co-founder at Alloy AI, one of SAP's partners
A handful of concrete data points appear - 2% in-stock improvement, roughly 1-2% prior awareness of the metric, named KPIs (OTIF, in-stock), and a private-label business context - but none are elaborated with methodology, baseline, or timeframe, leaving claims thin and unverifiable.
our in-stock improved by 2%. Everybody was applauding
it was a metric that was known by probably one or two percent
The host's only visible contributions are a sponsor introduction and a closing thank-you to SAP; there are no discernible follow-up questions, no challenges to any claim, and no evidence of a prepared line of inquiry - this reads as a produced sponsor clip, not a substantive interview.
I want to thank SAP once again for helping to make this series possible
maybe we'll catch these guys again down the road when we're moving even further into the autonomous phase at Cascades
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
"Three years ago... our success metric was OTIF. Andtoday it's the in-stock. It was a metric known by probably one or two people - I didn't know about it. And today we had our monthly tissue sector reunion, and we mentioned that our in-stock improved by 2%. Everybody was applauding. It's the first time anybody applauded for in-stock results." - Xavier Duprat , VP, Supply Chain Planning & Fulfillment, Cascades . Full podcast episode, "Autonomous Decisions at Scale:Making AI Work in the Real World" - A DEMO of Supply Chain Planning Reimagined in action!:
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Greetings all, welcome to the second installment in our two-part special series here on the Enterprise Edge podcast in partnership with SAP entitled Supply Chain Planning Reimagined. Once again, I am joined by Xavier Duprat, Vice President, Supply Chain Planning and Fulfillment at Cascades, and also Joel Beal, CEO and co-founder at Alloy AI, one of SAP's partners. So three years ago, our success metric was, apart from profitability, etc., customer success, it was the OTIF.
And today, it's the in-stock. if we didn't meet Joel today, I'm sure we'd not be talking about in-stock. It was a metric that was known by probably one or two percent. I didn't know about it.
And actually today we had our monthly tissue sector reunion and we mentioned that our in-stock improved by 2%. Everybody was applauding. It's the first time anybody applauds for in-stock results. So just to show you the importance of that metric because we want to be the partner of choice for retailers So it important that we go beyond just the traditional KPI which is you order this I ship you that But most of the time, this does not necessarily translate into out of stock.
So I think going forward, that's going to be the main metric for us to measure success for our customer. And again, we're just going to get better. And you'll see when you open the box in the beginning, you'll see your lost sales. And you can argue on the mathematics, but it's not rocket science.
So that's the eye-opener, I think it was for us. And when you see your last sale, you're in stock, your opportunity to protect your revenue. And since we're on private label, it's our revenues. The retail is the same revenue.
So we're the same team. So we need to make sure that everything gets on the shelf. So that's the ultimate goal. I want to thank SAP once again for helping to make this series possible.
Supply chain planning reimagined. And maybe we'll catch these guys again down the road when we're moving even further into the autonomous phase at Cascades.
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