● COST OPTIMIZATION ENGINE

Fill Rate
Optimizer

Mission-critical EU-wide pricing system—evolved from manual spreadsheets to Standard Operating Procedure adopted across entire EU Supply Chain by 2023 Q1. Now fully autonomous cloud execution, eliminating ~40 labor hours weekly and saving over ~£1M annually through real-time fill rate validation

> annual_savings
~£1M
> hours_saved
~40/wk
> sla_reduction
10%
> eu_adoption
100%
> sop_status
CORE
// THE CHALLENGE

Manual Operations at EU Scale

EU network expansion created an unsustainable crisis—operators manually reviewed reports every 30 minutes, consuming 40 labor hours weekly across the region while blind price decisions wasted over £1M annually

cost_analysis.log
$ Analyzing EU-wide operational crisis...
> Manual labor: ~40 hours per week across EU
> Report frequency: Every ~30 minutes
> Data latency: STALE - no live checks
> Price decisions: BLIND - no real-time validation
> Cycle awareness: NONE - morning prices applied all day
> SOP compliance: VIOLATED - surging above threshold
> Scalability: IMPOSSIBLE - unsustainable at EU scale
! CRITICAL: Operations depend on price optimization - manual process failing
// CRITICAL IMPACT - EU OPERATIONS
~£1M
Annual waste eliminated from blind price surges—plus ~40 hours weekly of manual labor completely removed. By 2023 Q1, this tool became Standard Operating Procedure across entire EU Supply Chain. Operations now rely on this system 24/7 for critical pricing decisions, validating fill rates in real-time before every surge to ensure SOP compliance.
// SOLUTION EVOLUTION

From Prototype to EU Standard Operating Procedure

Four-phase transformation achieving full EU adoption by 2023 Q1—becoming the core system all EU Supply Chain operations depend on daily

PHASE 0

Manual Process

Pre-2022

Operators manually reviewed reports every ~30 minutes, filtering thousands of rows to identify stations needing price increases. No live data validation—decisions made on stale information, causing massive overspend.

PHASE 1

Dashboard Phase

2022 Q2

Built Python/Tkinter interface converting raw reports into organized UI with list boxes by delivery cycle. Highlighted only eligible stations for price increases. Reduced manual review time from ~40 hours/week to ~20 hours/week—proving the concept and gaining early adoption from EU operations teams.

PHASE 2

Semi-Automation & SOP Integration

2023 Q1 - FULL EU ADOPTION

CRITICAL MILESTONE: Integrated Selenium automation for live fill-rate validation—this breakthrough cut unnecessary surges by 50%+ and saved over £1M annually. System formally adopted as Standard Operating Procedure across entire EU Supply Chain. All EU stations now rely on this tool for daily price optimization. Added Slack webhooks for stakeholder notifications and real-time SOP compliance checks.

COMMUNICATOR TOOL ADDED: Once automation started, SLA misses emerged from other departments manually requesting price increases. Built dedicated communicator tool allowing teams to send surge requests directly to a processing queue—eliminating manual intervention and reducing SLA misses by 10% on average. Requests were automatically validated and queued for processing without user involvement.

PHASE 3

Full Cloud Automation

2024 Q2

FULL CLOUD MIGRATION: Fully autonomous cloud-based system—the mission-critical tool that entire EU Supply Chain now depends on 24/7. Configurable SOP parameters (buffer thresholds, price caps), automated Selenium-based price adjustments, fail-safe contingency alerts, S3 cloud logging for business intelligence, and back-end API enabling stations to trigger requests directly.

COMMUNICATOR MERGED TO CLOUD: The standalone communicator tool was fully integrated into cloud infrastructure—requests now flow directly to cloud processing queue via API, maintaining the 10% SLA improvement while eliminating the separate desktop application.

Zero human input required—runs on schedule with complete audit trail while eliminating all 40 hours/week of manual labor.

// SYSTEM INTERFACE

Tool Evolution (Pre-Cloud)

Historical GUI from manual/semi-automated phases—now fully cloud-based with no interface required

Dashboard Interface
> dashboard

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

Live Fill Rate Check
> eu_live_fill_rate_dashboard

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

Surge Configuration
> surge_configuration

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

// AUTOMATED NOTIFICATIONS

Stakeholder Alerts & Guardrails

Real-time Slack webhooks for successful surges and failure contingencies

Surge Success Notification
> surge_success.webhook

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

Attention Required Alert
> attention_required.webhook

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

// COMMUNICATOR TOOL

SLA Reduction Through Direct Request Queue

Dedicated tool enabling departments to submit surge requests directly to processing queue—reducing SLA misses by 10%

Communicator Tool Interface
> communicator_tool.interface

Note: First version interface, no longer in active use. For demonstration purposes only.

The Problem

Once the Fill Rate Optimizer automation started in 2023 Q1, a new bottleneck emerged: other departments (capacity planning, station operations) still needed to manually request price increases for specific scenarios. These manual requests created SLA misses and delayed critical pricing decisions.

The Solution

Built a standalone communicator tool allowing departments to send surge requests directly to a processing queue. Requests were automatically validated, queued, and processed without manual intervention from the Fill Rate Optimizer operator—cutting SLA response time and reducing SLA misses by 10% on average.

Cloud Integration (2024 Q2)

During Phase 3 cloud migration, the communicator tool was fully integrated into the cloud infrastructure. Requests now flow directly via back-end API to the cloud processing queue—maintaining the SLA improvement while eliminating the separate desktop application entirely.

// ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

The Million-Pound Problem

What Was Actually Happening

❌ PROBLEM 1: Blind Surging

Reports arrived every 30 minutes showing blocks needing coverage. By the time operators reviewed them and raised prices, the data was already stale. We had no visibility into what was happening right now—no live fill rate checks before surging.

❌ PROBLEM 2: SOP Violations

Standard Operating Procedures defined threshold fill rates—blocks above these should NOT be surged. But without live data, we were blindly raising prices on blocks that were already filling, wasting massive amounts of money.

❌ PROBLEM 3: All-Day Pricing

Worst of all: when someone raised prices in the morning cycle, those elevated rates stayed applied for ALL cycles throughout the day—even evening blocks that didn't need surging. We were paying premium rates all day based on morning data.

✓ THE FIX

I identified this systemic issue and built a solution that checks live fill rate data from the scheduling platform BEFORE every price adjustment. The tool now:

  • ✓ Validates fill rates in real-time against SOP thresholds—no blind surging
  • ✓ Applies cycle-specific pricing—morning rates don't carry to evening
  • ✓ Only surges when data confirms it's necessary and compliant

RESULT: Over ~50% reduction in surge requests → ~£1M annual savings

// MEASURABLE IMPACT

Transformation Results

Quantifiable improvements across cost efficiency, labor savings, and operational resilience

~£1M
Annual Savings
~40hrs
Saved Per Week
10%
SLA Reduction
EU-Wide
SOP Adoption
24/7
Critical Operations

Key Benefits

  • ✓ Mission-Critical EU Standard: Adopted as core SOP across entire EU Supply Chain by 2023 Q1—all operations now depend on this system 24/7 for price optimization
  • ✓ ~40 Hours Weekly Eliminated: Completely removed manual report review burden (equivalent to ~1 FTE / ~£38,400 annual labor cost savings)
  • ✓ ~£1M Annual Savings: ~45% reduction in EU offer spending through real-time fill rate validation—eliminating blind surges and SOP violations
  • ✓ EU-wide Scalability: Handles network-wide delivery block optimization without additional headcount—future-proofed for expansion
  • ✓ Operational Resilience: Maintained coverage during strikes, seasonal peaks, and large-scale events—proactive alerting prevented customer promise failures
  • ✓ Full Transparency: Automated Slack notifications with S3 cloud logging—complete audit trail for business intelligence and stakeholder visibility