For Supply Chain Analysts ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have a personal AI assistant in Claude that already knows your industry, your company's supply chain setup, your key metrics and targets, and the language your stakeholders use. Every report, email, and analysis explanation you produce using it will be calibrated to your specific context — not generic supply chain advice.
What you'll need
In the Project Settings panel, click Project Instructions and paste in the following — customize every bracketed section:
I am a supply chain analyst at [company type — mid-size CPG / large retailer / 3PL / manufacturer] with approximately [X] SKUs across [Y] product categories.
MY SUPPLY CHAIN SETUP:
- ERP system: [SAP / Oracle / NetSuite / other]
- Planning tool: [Blue Yonder / Kinaxis / o9 / Excel-based]
- Key metrics I track: [OTIF target X%, inventory turns target X, forward cover target X days, forecast accuracy MAPE target X%, fill rate target X%]
- Reporting cadence: [weekly inventory status report, monthly KPI deck, quarterly supplier scorecards, monthly S&OP]
MY STAKEHOLDERS:
- [VP Supply Chain / Supply Chain Director]: wants executive summary language, quantified impact, decision framing
- [Category Managers / Merchandising]: wants availability and inventory position in plain business terms
- [Finance]: wants cash flow and working capital implications
- [Suppliers]: professional but direct; clear on expectations and consequences
MY INDUSTRY: [Retail / CPG / Manufacturing / 3PL]
COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES:
- Weekly reports: direct, factual, 150-200 words, structured with bullet points for key risks
- Supplier emails: professional and firm; specific deadlines; clear on business impact
- Executive summaries: lead with the so-what, then the supporting data
- RCAs: structured format (What happened → Why → Corrective action)
When I give you supply chain data or findings, help me write professional narratives, emails, and documents in this context. If I give you vague inputs, ask for the specific metrics that would make the output more accurate.
Click Save.
Start a conversation in your Project and type:
"Write the executive summary for this week's inventory report. Key findings: forward cover across the portfolio is 28 days vs. 32-day target. Five SKUs are below 10-day forward cover — all in the seasonal outdoor category. Reorders are placed. Two top-10 SKUs are overstocked at 60+ days due to a demand miss on last month's promotion."
What you should see: A professional, concise report summary that uses your target language (forward cover, OTIF) and frames the situation with the appropriate risk tone — without you explaining what forward cover means or what your targets are.
Weekly inventory narrative: "Write the weekly inventory status summary. Key findings: [bullets]."
S&OP talking points: "Write S&OP talking points for [date] meeting. Demand: [change]. Supply: [constraints]. Inventory: [vs target]. Decisions needed: [list]."
Supplier escalation: "Write a supplier escalation email to [supplier] about [issue]. Business impact: [X]. Action needed by: [date]."
RCA document: "Write a stockout RCA for [SKU/category]. What happened: [description]. Root causes: [list]. Corrective actions: [list]."
Stakeholder translation: "Translate this finding for my [audience]: [technical finding in SC terms]. Plain business language, no jargon."