Why does ABC analysis fall short?

ABC analysis is rarely wrong in principle and often wrong in practice, because the classes are set during an annual review and then trusted for a year. New references launch into the C tail with no history and stay underfunded while demand climbs; ageing items keep an A status and pull buffer they no longer earn; seasonal lines move in and out of relevance every quarter. The result is a slow mismatch between where inventory sits and where demand actually is, the core difficulty of managing volatility in raw material replenishment. The fix is a faster cadence: segment continuously so the classification reflects the catalogue you have now.