Purchasing & replenishment · Food & beverage distribution
Fresh stock bought, waste pulled down.
Velocity swings with the weather and the promo calendar, but the buy is sized by hand. Over-buy a short-shelf-life item and it dumps at code date.
The reality
Perishable buying is a timing problem.
The buyer is balancing shelf life against velocity against vendor minimums, and the data moves faster than the spreadsheet. A buy that was right on Monday is wrong by Thursday, and the short-date inventory already in the building needs to move before it codes out — that's a separate scramble nobody owns.
The operator owns replenishment end to end: it reads live velocity against days-of-supply and remaining shelf life, sizes the buy to cover demand without overshooting the code date, triggers the PO to the vendor, and flags short-date lots for markdown or promotion before they expire.
How the operator runs purchasing & replenishment
SKU DAIRY-118 · Demand
reading- 7-day velocity up 22% on promo
- DOS 2.1 days, below target
- Shelf life 9 days — sizing buy
01Read velocity and shelf life
Compares live velocity against days-of-supply and the remaining shelf life on hand.
PO 4412 · Vendor coop
ordering- Sized to 14 cases, clears in 6 days
- Vendor minimum met
- PO 4412 triggered
02Size and trigger the buy
Sizes the order to cover demand inside the code date and triggers the PO to the vendor.
Lot DAIRY-118-L7 · Short date
flagging- Lot codes in 4 days
- 32 cases still on hand
- Routed to promo markdown
03Flag short-date stock
Surfaces lots nearing code date and routes them to markdown or promotion before they expire.
The outcome
−50% of buyer time on routine reorder decisions
Fresh stock available, waste minimised
- Buys sized to clear inside the code date, not just to cover demand
- Short-date lots routed to promo before they're unsellable
- Empty racks avoided on velocity swings the spreadsheet missed
Common questions
Purchasing & replenishment
- What does the Purchasing & replenishment operator do?
- The operator owns replenishment end to end: it reads live velocity against days-of-supply and remaining shelf life, sizes the buy to cover demand without overshooting the code date, triggers the PO to the vendor, and flags short-date lots for markdown or promotion before they expire.
- What impact does the Purchasing & replenishment operator have?
- −50% of buyer time on routine reorder decisions. Fresh stock available, waste minimised
- How does the Purchasing & replenishment operator work?
- Compares live velocity against days-of-supply and the remaining shelf life on hand. Sizes the order to cover demand inside the code date and triggers the PO to the vendor. Surfaces lots nearing code date and routes them to markdown or promotion before they expire.
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