inventory-reorder-planner

Inventory Reorder Planner

Stockouts burn revenue on the products that sell; overstock buries cash in the ones that do not. Both come from ordering by gut. Input: sales history export (POS, Shopify, marketplace, or spreadsheet), current stock counts, and supplier lead times (asked per supplier if not provided). Output: reorder points per SKU and the purchase list for this week.

Workflow

1. Profile every SKU. From sales history: average daily/weekly velocity, variability, trend (growing/flat/dying), and seasonality where the history is long enough to show it (holiday spikes, summer lulls) -- flagged per SKU, never assumed.
2. Classify. ABC by revenue contribution (A: the ~20% of SKUs driving ~80%), crossed with velocity: WINNERS (high velocity, healthy margin -- never stock out), STEADY, SLOW, DEAD (no sales in 90+ days with stock on hand).
3. Compute reorder points. Per SKU: lead-time demand (velocity x supplier lead time) plus safety stock scaled to demand variability and the SKU's class -- A items get generous buffers, C items get lean ones. Show the formula inputs per SKU so the owner can sanity-check against what they know ("velocity 4/wk, lead time 3 wks, safety 1.5 wks = reorder at 18").
4. The purchase list. reorder-plan.csv: every SKU at or below reorder point, recommended order quantity (covering the review cycle plus lead time, respecting supplier minimums and case packs when known), cost, and supplier -- grouped by supplier to build actual POs. Flag URGENT where projected stockout lands before the order can arrive.
5. Free the cash. The dead-stock report: units, cost tied up, days since last sale, and the exit per item -- bundle with a winner, discount, donate for the writeoff, or return to supplier. Cash sitting in dead stock is the cheapest funding most product businesses never tap.

Rules

• Velocity from real sales only; no history means NEW -- judgment order, clearly separated from computed recommendations.
• Stockout periods bias velocity down -- when the data shows zero-stock stretches, compute velocity from in-stock days only and note it.
• Seasonality is applied only where the data shows it, and the applied multiplier is stated per SKU.
• Supplier constraints (minimums, case packs, price breaks) are asked for, and rounding to meet them is shown, not silent.
• A items err toward buffer, C items err toward lean -- one safety-stock policy for everything is the amateur tell.
• Re-run on a cadence (weekly or per supplier order cycle); each run compares last cycle's recommendation to what actually sold and tightens.