The system works, but basically it has no latitude; it can't take any fluctuations. Food retailing is not an exacting science: how can you design a programme that can factor in, for example, the weather?
"The others have kept, by and large, to traditional methodologies and they realise that you cannot take JIT beyond a certain level."
The intricacies of sales prediction were compounded by Sainsbury's so-called high/low model of pricing. Instead of the EDLP - everyday low prices - model employed by the likes of Asda and Morrisons, it pursued more of a value-driven approach in which low-priced promotional items are sold alongside less competitive products.
Such a model makes running out of stock more likely when combined with the highly predictive, JIT model of stock replenishment used today compared with traditional sales-based replenishment.