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Agility of a supply chain is tested during consumer promotions.
Most consumer goods companies plan consumer promotions from time to time to create higher levels of demand. Planning of these promotions is often tricky, as the demand surge is difficult to predict. My experience suggests that the stock mismatch across geographies gets accentuated during such promotions. It is quite common to find some distributors frequently running out of stock while others find surplus inventory during the period.
How do we plan and execute better? Supply chains designed for agility find it much easier to place stocks in line with the demand surge in that geography. Stocks from the plant and mother warehouse are allocated on a dynamic basis depending on the demand manifesting in that market.
Agile supply chains sense actual demand at the most granular level on a continuous basis to arrive at the stock allocation decisions. The supply chain needs higher level of backend flexibility and responsiveness as well.