「釋義」

庫存單位增殖是指零售商或分銷商增加向客戶提供的產(chǎn)品（SKU）數(shù)量的過程。

隨著更了解客戶的需求并量身定制產(chǎn)品以滿足這些需求，每項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)都會(huì)經(jīng)歷庫存單位增殖。

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「應(yīng)用場(chǎng)景」

疫情期間，很多產(chǎn)品類別需求激增，制造商很難從為一個(gè)細(xì)分市場(chǎng)供貨躍遷到另一個(gè)，或者從生產(chǎn)一種產(chǎn)品變?yōu)樯a(chǎn)另一種。美國(guó)食品市場(chǎng)的案例就是這樣，企業(yè)很難適應(yīng)餐飲業(yè)需求驟降，消費(fèi)者需求倍增。部分原因是庫存單位增殖——供應(yīng)不同細(xì)分市場(chǎng)的同種產(chǎn)品的不同形式增加。例如，企業(yè)無法滿足超市衛(wèi)生紙?jiān)鲩L(zhǎng)的需求，是因?yàn)橹圃焐瘫仨殞?duì)調(diào)生產(chǎn)線，因?yàn)橄M(fèi)者更喜歡柔軟多層的衛(wèi)生紙，而不是酒店和辦公室采購(gòu)的更大卷更薄的衛(wèi)生紙。加上不同零售商希望有不同包裝和組合，這更增加了復(fù)雜性。

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During the pandemic, when demand surged in many product categories, manufacturers struggled to shift from supplying one market segment to supplying another, or from making one kind of product to making another. A case in point is the U.S. groceries market, where companies had difficulty adjusting to the plunge in demand from restaurants and cafeterias and the rise in consumer demand. SKU proliferation—the addition of different forms of the same product to serve different market segments—was partly responsible. For example, one obstacle to meeting heightened demand for toilet paper at supermarkets was that manufacturers had to change over their production lines, because consumers prefer soft multi-ply rolls rather than the thinner toilet paper that many hotels and offices purchased in much larger rolls. Adding to the complexity, different retail chains wanted their own packaging and assortments.

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以上文字選自《哈佛商業(yè)評(píng)論》中文版2020年9月刊《后疫情時(shí)代的全球供應(yīng)鏈》

史兆威（Willy C. Shih）丨文

馬冰侖?丨編輯?