Ahold Delhaize Moving to AI-Powered Supply Chain

Ahold Delhaize USA’s Retail Business Services unit is implementing what officials describe as a “game-changing” forecasting and replenishment solution using artificial intelligence to assure fresher food supply and better product availability throughout the chain.

Retail Business Services manages the supply chain operations for the Stop & Shop, Giant/Martin’s, Giant Food, Food Lion, Hannaford and Peapod brands. The new solution leverages technology from Relex Solutions, which has been used by the Food Lion and Hannaford brands for a year. Based on success of that test, Retail Business Services said it was scaling the solution to support each of Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands and online channels.

“By implementing this game-changing solution, Retail Business Services is further enabling Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands to deliver on their ambitions to be there for their customers anytime, anywhere with the freshest products,” Chris Lewis, EVP of supply chain for Retail Business Services, said in a release. “Not only will it provide local brand stores with the flexibility they need to best serve their customers, it will enable a complete supply chain transformation at a time when customer expectations are rapidly changing the way groceries are bought, sold and delivered.”

The solution delivers integrated, efficient end-to-end forecasting and replenishment for both fresh and center-store products using a flexible rules engine, which enables each of the local brands to tailor the solution to their customers’ unique needs, the companies said. Leveraging artificial intelligence, the system constantly learns from itself to enable increasingly sophisticated forecasting decisions, resulting in inventory, shrink and out-of-stock reductions and improvements in on-shelf availability.

“We’re humbled by the trust they’ve shown in the work we’ve done together so far,” Michael Falck, North America president of Finland-based Relex, said in a blog post. “And, we’re excited to see the outcomes our solution will help these brands to drive.”