Here’s a concise response for the stockout crisis: 1. Prioritize High-Value Customers – Fulfill orders from key clients or those with a long-standing relationship to maintain loyalty. 2. Assess Order Urgency – Identify time-sensitive orders or those crucial to business operations, ensuring they are fulfilled first. 3. Fair Allocation – Distribute available stock equitably across customers, ensuring transparency and fairness in decision-making. 4. Communicate Proactively – Notify customers immediately about the stockout, offering alternatives, partial shipments, or expected restock dates. 5. Evaluate Impact – Prioritize based on the financial impact and customer retention potential to minimize long-term losses.

1. Review the gap caused by the stockout. How long lasting will it be. 2. If it is an item purchased regularly by existing customers, review which of those will be impacted. Reach out to them to see if they have a balance on hand and you can ration their purchasing over the period. 3. Look to bring inventory at spoke locations to a central location. This ensures inventory is being released from one pool so it can be fairly distributed. 4. Look for substitute/alternate products. 5. Communicate the above through to customers that will be impacted by the stock out. Maintain regular comms as the situation progresses.

To effectively manage a stockout crisis, assess its severity, identify critical orders based on customer importance, order urgency, and business impact, communicate proactively with customers, allocate limited stock fairly, manage backorders effectively, and review the supply chain to prevent future occurrences. By following these steps, businesses can minimize the negative impact of stockouts, maintain customer satisfaction, and strengthen relationships.