How do I know if I need multi-echelon inventory optimization?

A few recurring patterns signal that traditional, location-by-location inventory planning has reached its limit. If your teams are constantly tweaking safety stock levels by hand, chasing stock imbalances between warehouses or stores, or struggling to maintain service levels despite sitting on high inventory, those are clear signs.

Other indicators are frequent inter-site transfers to plug stockouts, a long tail of slow-moving SKUs trapped at the wrong location, and planning discussions that revolve around "who needs stock from whom" rather than "how much should we order overall."

MEIO becomes essential as soon as your Supply Chain behaves as a network rather than a set of isolated locations — typically from the moment you operate two or more echelons or run distribution across multiple regions.