Your QBRs aren’t complete without a hard look at SKU velocity, margin erosion, and customer demand trends.
Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) have long served as strategic checkpoints for distributors. But for those in the glass, ceramics, and refractories markets—where material costs are volatile and warehouse space is at a premium—QBRs are more than check-ins. They’re opportunities to realign your inventory with what your customers are truly buying.
And the best QBRs are now putting SKU health front and center.
So what does it mean to track SKU health?
Think of each SKU like a living organism in your product ecosystem. It consumes space, capital, and management attention. A healthy SKU consistently generates revenue, has acceptable turns, supports profitable customer relationships, and aligns with current demand. An unhealthy SKU erodes margin, stagnates on shelves, or creates downstream inefficiencies like mis-picks or excessive customization needs.
The QBR is your venue to ask three essential SKU health questions:
1. Is This SKU Still Performing?
Performance begins with sales velocity, but it doesn’t end there. For example, in the refractory vertical, a dense castable mix may sell steadily, but only to one low-margin account that demands frequent partial deliveries. If the margin erosion from labor and logistics outweighs the revenue, it’s not a healthy SKU.
QBRs should include SKU-level scorecards showing:
Gross margin over time
Order frequency and average line value
Customer concentration risk
Obsolescence or near-expiry dates for shelf-life-sensitive materials like ceramic coatings
2. Is This SKU Creating Operational Friction?
Some SKUs may sell reasonably well but create outsized headaches. In glass distribution, oversized insulated glass units (IGUs) may require custom crating and non-standard racking—tying up labor and slowing down other operations. Or in ceramics, specialty crucibles might require delicate handling that bogs down fulfillment.
In your QBR, review:
Pick/pack error rates per SKU
Storage or handling constraints
Any special sourcing dependencies (e.g., long lead time from overseas suppliers)
This helps isolate SKUs that, while profitable on paper, cost more in operational drag than they return.
3. Is Customer Behavior Shifting?
Your QBR is also the place to review product substitution and cannibalization. Are customers shifting from traditional alumina bricks to newer insulating castables? Is the rise in laminated smart glass shrinking demand for once-core SKUs like monolithic clear sheets?
Overlay SKU sales trends with customer segments. Identify emerging behaviors early and retire or rebalance your inventory strategy accordingly.
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Tracking SKU health during QBRs turns product data into strategic intelligence. For glass, ceramics, and refractories distributors, this means more than cleaning up catalogs—it means identifying which SKUs are helping your business grow, and which are holding it back. Done right, it’s the kind of inventory discipline that keeps margins healthy and customers loyal.
