The right nodes, in the right places, running the right inventory.
Most distribution networks are not designed. They are grown — a warehouse added when a new market opened, a 3PL relationship signed when volume exceeded the previous facility, a DC left running after a regional market contracted. The result is a network that costs more per order than it should, serves customers worse than it needs to, and holds inventory in the wrong locations. Network optimisation is the analytical work of determining where to make, hold, and move product across the demand geography — and the operating work of restructuring the network toward that answer. Landed cost and service reliability move in the same direction, not opposite ones, when the network is configured correctly.
What the engagement covers
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- 01
Demand geography mapping: where customers are, what they order, at what frequency.
- 02
Node analysis: current DC, 3PL, and fulfilment location performance vs. the demand map.
- 03
Inventory positioning: which SKUs belong where, at what depth.
- 04
Transportation modelling: mode, lane, and carrier optimisation to the new node strategy.
- 05
Make-or-buy decisions: owned DC vs. 3PL vs. cross-dock vs. drop-ship, by node.
- 06
Implementation sequencing: which transitions to make first, how to maintain service through the change.
- 07
Operating model: the cadence that sustains the network in the new configuration.
Who engages a Network Optimization
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- 01
Businesses with networks that have grown by addition rather than design.
- 02
E-commerce and D2C brands expanding geographically and needing to redesign the fulfilment footprint.
- 03
PE-backed platforms integrating acquired distribution networks.
- 04
Businesses where freight cost is a material and growing percentage of cost-to-serve.
Engagement structure
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Six to ten-week modeling and design phase. Optional implementation leadership through the transition, typically six to eighteen months depending on scale.
Where the boundary sits
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Not a spreadsheet exercise handed to real estate to execute.
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Not a one-time optimisation — the model becomes an asset the business runs future footprint decisions through.
Where this discipline compounds.
If the network is inherited rather than designed, a scoped modeling conversation is the right first move.
Engage
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