Inventory feed lags a sales burst.
Detect: Movement watermark predates the shelf observation beyond the store's configured freshness limit.
Recover: Hold quantity-based recommendations and request a current scan or refreshed ledger snapshot.
Retail · INDUSTRY BLUEPRINT
Store replenishment exception desk
Reconcile shelf observations, inventory records, and delivery plans into manager-approved replenishment actions.
Explore in the architecture studioThe business situation
Illustrative reference architecture. Validate requirements for your organization.
Illustrative architecture: A grocery chain sees apparent stockouts despite positive store inventory. Shelf photographs, point-of-sale activity, damaged-goods records, and backroom counts disagree. Store managers need a short task list that distinguishes a shelf gap from a receiving error or a genuinely unavailable item.
Problem
Inventory snapshots can lag sales and waste adjustments. Sending every discrepancy straight to purchasing creates excess stock, while treating shelf-image recognition as certain can dispatch staff to the wrong location or product variant.
Why a multi-agent system?
Specialists examine shelf evidence, ledger movements, inbound supply, and store task capacity. Their findings feed a deterministic inventory reconciliation and a bounded task proposal; agents do not independently alter counts or purchase stock.
Intended outcome
The intended result is a reviewable operational decision with source evidence and explicit ownership. Track useful staff checks and inventory corrections separately from sales. Improved shelf availability is an operational hypothesis to test against comparable stores, not an outcome guaranteed by adding agents.
Specialist agent team
Shelf evidence agent
Identify candidate shelf gaps and attach image coordinates and product-match uncertainty.
Tools
- Approved shelf image reader
- planogram lookup
Authority boundary
Cannot convert an image observation into an inventory adjustment.
Inventory reconciler
Compare sales, receipts, transfers, and waste events for the affected SKU.
Tools
- Inventory ledger API
- exact quantity calculator
Authority boundary
Cannot post stock corrections or conceal negative balances.
Inbound supply analyst
Check delivery appointments and order-line status for missing items.
Tools
- Purchase order read API
- shipment status query
Authority boundary
Cannot create purchase orders or change supplier commitments.
Store task planner
Propose a backroom check, count, or shelf refill according to staffing and store rules.
Tools
- Task board draft API
- staffing availability reader
Authority boundary
Managers approve assignments and any inventory correction.
Enterprise systems
Point-of-sale and inventory systems
Provide item movements with event timestamps and authoritative quantity adjustments.
Planogram and product master
Resolve shelf positions, pack sizes, substitutions, and product identifiers.
Store operations platform
Owns staff assignments, task completion evidence, and manager approvals.
Architecture diagrams
flowchart LR
N0["Store replenishment exception desk"]
N1["Shelf evidence agent"]
N2["Inventory reconciler"]
N3["Inbound supply analyst"]
N4["Store task planner"]
N5["Evidence ledger"]
N6["Human decision"]
N7["Authorized adapter"]
N0 --> N1
N0 --> N2
N2 --> N3
N1 --> N4
N3 --> N4
N4 --> N5
N5 --> N6
N6 --> N7sequenceDiagram
participant O as "Case orchestrator"
participant S as "Point-of-sale and inventory systems"
participant H as "Accountable reviewer"
O->>S: Read inventory watermark
S-->>O: Snapshot predates shelf observation
O->>H: Request current shelf and barcode check
H-->>O: Confirm SKU and physical count
O->>S: Refresh movement ledger
O->>H: Present reconciled refill taskRuntime flow
- 1
Register shelf gap
Bind the observation to store, shelf, SKU candidates, and capture time; reject ambiguous location metadata.
- 2
Reconcile movements
Read the inventory watermark and all later sales or adjustments before explaining the discrepancy.
- 3
Inspect alternatives
Check backroom locations, substitute package identifiers, and scheduled inbound quantities while preserving uncertainty in product matches.
- 4
Choose operational check
Apply store rules to propose a shelf refill, physical count, receiving investigation, or monitored wait for inbound supply.
- 5
Review manager task
Show supporting evidence and expected staff effort; require explicit review for count adjustments or supplier-order changes.
- 6
Close evidence loop
Record the worker's scan or count, reconcile the ledger through authorized tools, and label the original hypothesis confirmed or rejected.
Failure recovery
Image matching confuses similar package sizes.
Detect: Product confidence and planogram identifier checks disagree.
Recover: Present both candidates and require a barcode scan before creating a SKU-specific task.
Security & decision boundaries
- Use barcode or governed product identifiers before committing inventory changes.
- Exclude shopper and employee identity from shelf-image processing where unnecessary.
- Record pack-size conversions explicitly and calculate quantities deterministically.
- Require manager approval for adjustments, orders, and substitution-policy changes.
- Deduplicate tasks by store, shelf, SKU, and active investigation window.
Operational metrics
Measurement definitions, not promised improvements.
Shelf-gap validation
Reported shelf gaps confirmed by staff divided by shelf gaps investigated.
Task preparation latency
Time from valid observation to manager-ready task, excluding store execution delay.
Inventory freshness
Age of the latest reconciled movement watermark at recommendation time, reported by store.
Duplicate task rate
Tasks merged or rejected as duplicate work divided by proposed tasks.
Architecture tradeoffs
| Decision | Benefit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Vision plus ledger evidence | Finds discrepancies invisible to either source alone. | Adds product ambiguity and image-governance work. |
| Manager task approval | Fits store accountability and staffing constraints. | Busy shifts can delay otherwise useful recommendations. |
| Store-local reconciliation | Limits cross-store data exposure and latency. | Central analytics must aggregate outcomes without losing local context. |
Rollout plan
Recorded store scenarios
Managers validate pack conversions, stale inventory handling, and visually similar products using known examples.
Shadow task board
One store group compares proposed checks with actual staff findings and verifies image minimization.
Controlled task publishing
Managers enable approved assignments after duplicate-task and late-ledger-update exercises pass.