The problem

Inventory knowledge lived in the warehouse, but the spreadsheets lived in the office. When a roll ran out, someone had to remember to tell someone, who had to remember to update the right sheet, out of several. Half the time the update never made the trip, and the sheets slowly drifted away from reality. Asking "how many rolls of the 60-inch gloss black are left?" meant opening four spreadsheets or walking to the racks.

What we built

A Slack bot the team already knows how to use, because it's just messaging:

  • Report stock in plain language. "Gloss black 60 inch, two rolls left" or "we're out of the ceramic 35." The bot figures out which SKU that is, shows the exact product back for a yes/no confirmation, and only then writes the update. No wrong-row surprises.
  • Ask questions the same way. The bot answers stock questions by reading across all the inventory sheets at once, so the answer reflects everything, not just the one file someone happened to open.
  • The spreadsheets stay the source of truth. The bot writes to the same Google Sheets the office already uses. Nothing about the existing process had to change; it just got a faster front door.

Results

  • Stock updates happen at the shelf, the moment someone notices, instead of surviving a game of telephone back to the office.
  • Anyone on the team gets stock answers in seconds without hunting through spreadsheets.
  • Currently rolling out with the warehouse team; we tune the product matching as real usage comes in.