This page explains adjusting replenishment: recalculating a style's own reorder point and quantity once real sales diverge from the rate the last replenishment cycle assumed, rather than repeating the same figures unchanged. It is for an agent, such as Meridian Sourcing, or a merchandiser working across more than one channel for the same style.
At work, a replenishment plan is built from a weekly sales rate measured at one point in time; that rate does not stay fixed forever. A style can speed up once it becomes better known, or slow down as a season matures, and a plan built on last cycle's rate quietly falls out of date if nobody checks it. Repeating the same reorder point and quantity cycle after cycle, regardless of what real sales are doing now, either understocks a style that has sped up or overstocks one that has slowed down. This lesson gives you the method for recalculating the plan once a real, sustained change in pace is confirmed.
You need: lessons 2.2 and 2.3's reorder point and replenishment quantity methods are useful background but not required.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: the reorder point and replenishment quantity calculations themselves (lessons 2.2 and 2.3); assembling the full worksheet (lesson 2.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Weekly sales rate | The average number of pieces of a style sold in one week, found by dividing total pieces sold by the number of weeks elapsed. |
| Hybrid selling model | A brand that sells through more than one route to market at once, for example wholesale and its own direct retail, often at different prices. |
| Reorder point | The quantity of stock remaining at which a Make to Stock buyer places its next production order against the standing forecast. |
| Sustained pattern | A sales gap that continues across more than one recording period, rather than appearing in a single week only. |
| Agent | An independent business that is paid a commission for arranging or managing an order on behalf of whichever side hired it. |
| Replenishment cycle | One repeating round of Make to Stock production, run against a forecast rather than a single confirmed order. |
A replenishment plan's reorder point and quantity are only as current as the weekly sales rate they were built on. Once real sales across every channel a style sells through, combined, show a sustained pattern of running faster or slower than that original rate, the plan is recalculated using the new, confirmed rate. A hybrid selling model makes this check a genuinely combined one: checking only one channel's sales, while ignoring the others, can miss or wrongly signal a real change in the style's total pace.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid, own shops and wholesale together | Order A's T-shirt sells through Northline Apparel's own shops and through Fairway Stores' wholesale purchase, both counted together for one combined rate. | A hybrid model's real pace is the combined rate; checking only Northline's own shops could miss a genuine speed-up happening mainly through Fairway Stores. |
| A single export channel | A style sold only through one wholesale buyer, with no separate direct-retail channel to combine. | A single-channel style's combined rate is simply that one channel's own rate, with no combination step needed. |
| An agent coordinating more than one buyer | Meridian Sourcing, as agent, sees sales data flow through more than one relationship and is positioned to flag a combined change early. | An agent's cross-channel view can catch a sustained change that neither individual buyer would see from its own data alone. |
| A rate change driven by one channel only | A local promotion at Fairway Stores' own shops temporarily lifts sales there, while Northline's own shops stay flat. | A change confined to one channel, and not sustained once the promotion ends, should not by itself trigger a full plan recalculation. |
The last replenishment cycle for Order A's T-shirt was planned on a combined weekly sales rate of 400 pieces. Meridian Sourcing, as agent, now checks real sales across both Northline Apparel's own shops and Fairway Stores together for the two weeks since that plan was set.
| Question | Repeating the last plan's 400-piece rate unchanged | Checking the current combined rate |
|---|---|---|
| Does the plan reflect what is happening now? | Not necessarily, since the last rate is used regardless of new data | Yes, the plan is checked against the current combined rate each cycle |
| What if one channel sped up and the other stayed flat? | No difference, since neither channel's data is checked | The combined rate correctly reflects the real overall change |
| What if the change turns out to be one week only? | No difference either way | The sustained-pattern check correctly avoids reacting to a single week |
Meridian Sourcing combines both channels' real sales to check against the last plan's own rate.
A common mistake is checking only the channel closest to hand, such as one buyer's own reported sales, and recalculating the whole plan from that single channel's rate while ignoring how the style is selling elsewhere. If Meridian Sourcing had recalculated Order A's T-shirt plan from Northline Apparel's own 260-piece shop rate alone, ignoring Fairway Stores' own 200-piece wholesale sell-through, the new reorder point would have understated the style's real 460-piece combined pace, risking a stockout across both channels once the true combined demand caught up with the smaller, single-channel-based order.
A replenishment plan's reorder point and order quantity are built on a weekly sales rate measured at one point in time, and that rate can change. For a style sold through more than one channel at once, the real rate to check is every channel's sales added together, not any single channel alone. If the combined rate shows a sustained change, holding across more than one period rather than a single week, the plan should be recalculated using the new rate. Checking only one channel while a style also sells through another route risks basing the whole plan on a rate that understates or overstates what is really happening.
Meridian Sourcing has combined both channels' sales for two straight weeks and confirmed the 460-piece combined rate against the plan's own 400-piece rate.
Should Meridian Sourcing recalculate the reorder point and replenishment quantity on the new 460-piece combined rate, or continue with the plan built on 400 pieces? Decide before you open the answer.
Recalculate on the new 460-piece combined rate. The increase has held across both of the last two weeks, meeting the sustained-pattern condition, and continuing with the outdated 400-piece rate would understate real combined demand across both channels.
First, why the outdated 400-piece plan is now understating demand. A reorder point and quantity built on 400 pieces per week will run out faster than planned against a real 460-piece pace, risking a stockout across both Northline Apparel's own shops and Fairway Stores together.
Second, why recalculating now, with the open production slot, matters. Delta Garments' available slot lets the recalculated, larger order be placed without delay; waiting risks losing the slot and having to recalculate later against an even larger, unaddressed gap.
Meridian Sourcing should recalculate the reorder point and replenishment quantity using the confirmed 460-piece combined rate, and place the order within the current open production slot. Lesson 2.5 brings this recalculation together with every other replenishment step into one complete worksheet.
Framed in lost sales rather than a single penalty figure: the gap between the outdated plan and the real combined rate compounds across a full cycle.
Leaving the replenishment plan on its outdated 400-piece rate for a full 4-week cycle, once the real combined rate has confirmed at 460 pieces, risks a 240-piece shortfall worth approximately USD 4,776 in lost sales across both channels combined.
The workbook's "Rate comparison" sheet takes each channel's own current weekly rate, combines them into one total, compares the total against the rate the last plan used, and flags whether the gap has held for more than one period.
Meridian Sourcing's own row records Northline Apparel's 260-piece rate and Fairway Stores' 200-piece rate combining to 460 pieces, with the sheet flagging a sustained increase against the plan's own 400-piece rate.
1. For a style sold through more than one channel, what is the correct weekly sales rate to compare against the last replenishment plan?
2. Northline Apparel's own shops sell 220 pieces per week and Fairway Stores sells 180 pieces per week of the same style. The last plan used a 350-piece rate. What is the confirmed weekly gap?
3. Why should a single strong week in only one channel not, by itself, trigger a full replenishment plan recalculation?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly sales rate | معدل المبيعات الأسبوعي | Taux de vente hebdomadaire | Haftalık satış oranı | The average number of pieces of a style sold in one week, found by dividing total pieces sold by the number of weeks elapsed. |
| Hybrid selling model | نموذج بيع مختلط | Modèle de vente hybride | Karma satış modeli | A brand that sells through more than one route to market at once, for example wholesale and its own direct retail, often at different prices. |
| Reorder point | نقطة إعادة الطلب | Point de recommande | Yeniden sipariş noktası | The quantity of stock remaining at which a Make to Stock buyer places its next production order against the standing forecast. |
| Sustained pattern | نمط مستمر | Schéma soutenu | Sürekli örüntü | A sales gap that continues across more than one recording period, rather than appearing in a single week only. |
| Agent | وكيل | Agent | Acente | An independent business that is paid a commission for arranging or managing an order on behalf of whichever side hired it. |
| Replenishment cycle | دورة تجديد المخزون | Cycle de réassort | Yeniden stoklama döngüsü | One repeating round of Make to Stock production, run against a forecast rather than a single confirmed order. |
You now know how to adjust a replenishment plan once real sales run faster or slower than expected. The next lesson brings every replenishment step, from candidate check to adjusted quantity, into one complete worksheet. Back to the course map