Worked example

The reasoning behind five calls.

A fictional distributor on Business Central, and the reasoning behind five of its calls from one week. This is how 6,200 items become a short list your team can act on.

Ridgeway Industrial Supply · Fictional

Business snapshot

A$14m annual revenue
6,200 active items
A$3.4m of stock at cost
On Business Central since 2023, planning settings unchanged since it went live
About a third of lines imported, 35 to 60 day lead times
A$610k of open purchase orders
An inventory controller absorbed by cycle counts, and a purchasing officer buying from the worksheet and a spreadsheet

The question

Which items should be bought now, which should wait, which need clearing, and which need watching? The planning worksheet produces hundreds of suggestions every run, and nobody trusts it. Get it wrong one way and cash sits in slow stock. Get it wrong the other way and the lines trade customers rely on run out.

Five example calls

BUY

SS-0816 · Hex Bolt M16 Stainless

Set up as order-only when it sold 2 boxes a month. It now sells about 40, and every customer waits 28 days.

Call: order 60 boxes now and make it a stocked item, reorder point about 45. The shortage never showed as a stockout, because the item wasn't meant to be stocked.

HOLD

PU-5100 · Diaphragm Pump 1in

Stock fell below its reorder point, so the worksheet suggests 82 more. The settings date from when Ridgeway went live, at 20 a month. It now sells about 8.

Call: don't order. The 38 on hand cover about five months. Reset the reorder point and maximum to current sales.

CLEAR

TP-5200 · Transfer Pump 2in

184 days cover, velocity down 35%, $23.4k tied up.

Call: offer to the two largest trade accounts as a bundle with spare parts kits before any markdown.

WATCH

LC-6612 · Lifting Chain 10mm

58 days cover, 42 day lead time, velocity down 12%, nothing on order.

Call: no order this week. Reassess next week as cover nears the reorder point.

CLEAR

GC-7702 · Galvanised Pipe Clamp 100mm

212 days cover, velocity down 27%, $18.9k tied up, mostly in unopened cartons.

Call: ask the supplier about a return first. Of all the routes, it recovers the most cash for the least effort.

From 6,200 items to a short list of calls.

Days of cover is one input, alongside sales velocity, lead times, incoming stock, supplier constraints and the planning settings in Business Central. The product is the decision. See the full week for Ridgeway →

Ridgeway is a good fit.

A$14m revenue, 6,200 items and planning settings untouched since going live sits right in the range Days of Cover is built for. It would start with a Cash Release Sprint.

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