Reorder point
The stock level at which you must order so the goods arrive before you hit zero: what you sell while you wait for the order, plus your safety buffer.
On this page
The reorder point is the number that separates "not yet" from "order now". When your stock drops below it, the product turns Order soon in the stock signal.
How it is computed
reorder point = demand per period × (lead time + order frequency)
+ safety stock- Demand per period
- What the forecast expects you to sell per day, week or month, depending on your account's granularity.
- Lead time
- How long the supplier takes to deliver. See Learned lead time.
- Order frequency
- The "Order frequency (days)" field on the supplier card: how often you order from them. If you order weekly, put 7. Empty counts as zero.
- Safety stock
- The buffer against variation in demand and in lead time. See Safety stock.
Why order frequency is in there
If you order from a supplier only once a week, today's order must last not just until it arrives but until the next one arrives. Without that stretch the quantity would fall short by exactly one week of sales. Leave the frequency empty and StockAI assumes you order with no fixed cadence, so the calculation uses the lead time alone.
From reorder point to order quantity
quantity = reorder point − current stock − what is already on its way
(never below 0; when there is something to order, never below the minimum order)- What is already on its way is subtracted, so you never order the same units twice.
- The minimum order quantity (MOQ) is a floor, not a multiple: if you need 520 and the minimum is 500, 520 is suggested, not 1,000. The factory value is 1.
- The quantity is rounded up to whole units.
An example with round numbers
A product sells 10 units a day, the supplier takes 15 days, you order every 7 days and the safety stock is 40 units.
- Sales during the wait: 10 × (15 + 7) = 220 units.
- Reorder point: 220 + 40 = 260 units, that is 26 days of sales.
- With 300 units on hand, cover is 30 days: above 26, the product is OK.
- With 200 units (20 days) it falls below 26: Order soon. The suggested quantity is 260 − 200 = 60 units, minus anything already on its way.
- With 70 units (7 days), cover is less than half of the 15-day lead time: Order NOW.
- Overstock starts at the larger of 3 × 15 = 45 days or 2 × 26 = 52 days: from 520 units.