Where should responsiveness be enhanced? Production planning insights from a consumer goods brand

Consumer goods brands commonly face the paradox of concurrent stockouts and excess inventory. To investigate whether this can be partly explained by misalignments between heterogeneous product characteristics and overly standarised planning parameters, we conducted a case study of a large fashion producer. This involves a statistical analysis that links product attributes from both the demand and supply sides to observable imbalance outcomes, allowing evaluation of how assortment, demand and supply factors, alone and in interaction, shape responsiveness needs across stock-keeping units (SKUs). The results provide diagnostic evidence that (i) imbalance is systematically associated with product newness, lifecycle posture, sales magnitude/value and certain supply constraints; (ii) uniform lead times across heterogeneous SKUs are associated with both higher shortage and surplus exposure; and (iii) targeted responsiveness (e.g. agile replenishment for new/seasonal items and lean parameter recalibration for carryover high‑value SKUs) may help mitigate imbalance. We translate these findings into a production‑planning decision matrix that operationalises data‑driven segmentation along the lean–agile continuum.