Smarter Material Allocation for Stronger Production Performance

Effective material allocation is essential to maximizing production performance, yet constrained supply, fragmented data, and manual evaluation often make it difficult to distribute materials where they will deliver the greatest impact. When teams lack early visibility into upcoming bottlenecks, they can struggle to prioritize sites, align supply with demand, or maintain consistent capacity utilization. With AI and automation, organizations can now detect constraints earlier and take coordinated action before they disrupt throughput.

Using the Constrained Inventory Management Skill, the Aera decision intelligence agent has helped organizations achieve a 66% reduction in time to generate initial allocation plans, 60% auto acceptance of recommendations, and ~80% reduction in manual effort to onboard new consigned inventory.

These improvements show how decision intelligence transforms material allocation from a reactive, manual process into a proactive, closed-loop system that strengthens production performance at scale.

The Challenges: Constrained Supply, Fragmented Data, and Manual Allocation

Material constraints begin well before production delays become visible. When planners rely on manual analysis or disconnected systems, they may not see emerging issues in time to allocate scarce materials effectively or prioritize the right contract manufacturers. Organizations face several recurring challenges:

• Manual allocation analysis that requires planners to evaluate constraints and distribution options by hand, slowing decision-making and limiting throughput.
• Limited visibility into material constraints across supply, demand, and inventory systems, making early detection difficult.
• Siloed planning across sites, where suppliers and contract manufacturers plan independently, reducing alignment and optimization potential.
• Inconsistent capacity utilization caused by ad-hoc allocation methods that leave some sites underused while others face shortages.

Left unaddressed, these issues create production inefficiencies, missed service opportunities, incremental operating costs, and reduced overall capacity utilization.

The Aera Solution: AI-Driven Material Allocation

Aera, the decision intelligence agent, applies the Constrained Inventory Management Skill to identify inventory constraints early and recommend the best allocation strategy across contract manufacturers. The skill:

• Matches material supply and demand at the batch level. It evaluates on-hand inventory, supply projections, BOM requirements, and demand signals to surface constraints and allocation opportunities.
• Determines the optimal allocation strategy. It considers supply availability, capacity limits, site priorities, and demand needs to recommend the most effective material distribution.
• Generates actionable recommendations. It produces ready-to-execute allocation instructions validated against capacity, priority, and material availability.
• Enables rapid execution. It routes recommendations to planning, materials, and logistics teams with clear insights, empowering fast and confident action.

Behind the scenes, a system of AI agents performs batch-level matching, BOM consolidation, sequential allocation logic, capacity evaluation, and rule-based eligibility — continuously improving allocation accuracy and speed over time.

Case Study: From Manual Allocation to Intelligent, Closed-Loop Optimization

A global manufacturing company struggled with production inefficiencies caused by manual allocation processes and siloed planning across suppliers and contract manufacturers. Slow analysis made it difficult to respond to constrained materials or redirect supply to higher-priority sites.

After deploying Aera’s Constrained Inventory Management Skill, the company gained real-time visibility into constrained materials and automated allocation planning across all sites. The Skill proactively aligned constrained supply with finished goods demand, ensuring priority contract manufacturers received materials first.

Within months, the organization achieved:

• 66% reduction in time to generate initial allocation plans
• 60% of recommendations auto accepted
• ~80% reduction in manual effort to onboard new consigned inventory

These gains enabled faster decision-making, higher capacity utilization, and more reliable production performance across the network.

Why Aera: What Sets It Apart

Aera transforms material allocation from a manual, inconsistent process into a proactive, intelligent system of action. By connecting data, decision logic, and execution in one closed loop, Aera helps organizations distribute constrained materials effectively and at scale. Key differentiators include:

• Unified decision intelligence that integrates supply, demand, inventory, and capacity into a single connected platform.
• AI-augmented workflows that accelerate planner productivity with automated matching, constraint validation, and sequential allocation logic.
• Closed-loop execution that turns insights into optimized allocation actions, with clear tracking and continuous improvement over time.

With Aera, teams can move beyond firefighting, achieving faster, smarter, and more resilient decisions across their production network.

Ready To Transform Your Material Allocation Strategy?

For more on how Aera can help you detect material constraints early, optimize allocation across contract manufacturers, and strengthen production performance with AI-driven decision intelligence, download the Constrained Inventory Management Skill brief or schedule a demo.