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Food & hospitality / Question & answer

Restaurant Inventory Reorder Point: worked example

Estimate a replenishment trigger from entered usage and lead time.

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Restaurant / cover economics
Answer

With the illustrative inputs below, the result is 76 items.

Try this with your own numbers

Formula and worked example

Reorder point = daily usage × lead time + safety stock

Example figures
InputExample
Average daily item usage8
Supplier lead time7 days
Safety stock20 items
Calculated result76 items

Choose reliable inputs

Track purchased quantities, usable yield, labour and waste before deciding on a selling price. For this restaurant calculation, use recipe sheets, supplier invoices and stock counts and a consistent definition of one cover.

  • Ingredients: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
  • Service labour: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
  • Facility overhead: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.

Use the same currency for every money input. Do not mix weekly costs with monthly revenue, or count the same expense in both an itemised cost and allocated overhead.

Is a reorder point the same as the order quantity?

The trigger says when to reorder. Purchase quantity also depends on supplier minimums, stock space, and demand variability.

Demand and lead time are averages; safety stock is entered rather than statistically estimated.

Compare a different assumption

What if this input changes?

If average daily item usage rises by 10%, this example changes by 5.6 items. This shows the effect of one change; it does not predict what will happen.

Open the calculator, save your baseline, then change the input supported by the least reliable estimate in your records. Compare both scenarios before committing to a price or capacity promise.

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