Understanding how goods move through a business.
FMCG & Retail research examines what has to happen for goods to move from supply to sale while the business keeps track of what entered, what changed, where it went, who handled it and what was recorded.
The research examines the connected operations behind that movement, then investigates the questions, requirements and findings that can inform better systems and technology.
A product does not move through a business by itself.
A product can pass through suppliers, warehouses, branches, employees, terminals, transactions and customers before it reaches its destination.
At each stage, something changes: goods are received, stored, moved, transformed, sold, returned or recorded. The business needs to know what happened and account for those changes.
The research starts with these real operating events and examines what must be true for them to work reliably.
Follow a product. See the business.
Follow a product from where it begins to where it reaches a customer. Along the way, see the businesses, movements, transactions and decisions that make the journey possible.
Across import, stock movement and retail-form conversion.
A product journey through the documented import, stock movement and repackaging events connected to Pakistani Basmati Rice inside Horizon Group.
Witness the journeyFrom a Maasai farmer to a city kitchen sale.
Follow the journey of meat from its agricultural origin through the business operations that connect it to a city sale.
Witness the journeyFrom supplier delivery through changing product forms and production.
Follow Ajab Flour through the documented purchase, repackaging, manufacturing and retail-commerce relationships inside Horizon Group.
Witness the journeyThe journeys show what happens. The research examines what must be true for those operations to keep working.
The journey raises deeper questions.
A product journey shows what happens across a business. Research examines those operations to establish what needs to remain true for the business to keep working.
Explore the questions behind the work.
The FMCG study examines connected questions across the life of a business, from establishing the enterprise and its operating locations, through people, infrastructure, inventory, purchasing, production, movement and sales, to transactions, review and closure.
One study, connected questions.
Each question shows the subject being examined and provides a path into the detailed research behind it. The questions are presented in the order established by the research.
Research does not end with a question.
Each question is examined closely enough to establish what needs to remain true in the work. Those findings can then inform the technology, systems and operating environments through which the work is put into practice.
Technology follows the work.
The research does not assume one technology in advance. A technology becomes relevant when it provides a useful way to respond to something the research has established.
Artificial Intelligence
Technology that can interpret information, assist with decisions and handle defined tasks within the operating environment.
Explore TechnologyBusiness Automation
Technology for connecting business processes, records and operating context so activity can be managed consistently across locations.
Explore TechnologyEdge Computing
Computing and sensing performed closer to the people, devices and physical operations using the system.
ExploreResearch becomes useful when it enters a working system.
The FMCG research informs the design of Ithoka Business Suite, a business system that connects people, branches, stock and transactions across everyday operations.
The research is not presented separately from the system. Its findings are represented in the work the system is designed to support.
See the research in a business environment.
Research becomes easier to understand when its findings can be examined in an operating context.
Horizon Group provides a working FMCG business environment where Ithoka Business Suite can be explored across branches, people, products and everyday operations.
Research continues after the system is built.
Findings from the work can be examined beyond individual research questions, revealing broader patterns in how FMCG businesses operate and where systems can respond to the work.
Have an operation worth understanding better?
Describe the recurring process, movement, operational difficulty or system question that needs closer examination. The work may begin with research, a system, automation, integration or another technology response depending on what the situation requires.