Automate inventory alerts and replenishment
Every morning the workflow checks which item has fallen below its reorder point – calculated from usage, lead time and safety stock. Whatever is short goes to the responsible person as one bundled replenishment proposal, with quantity, supplier and goods already on order in context.
The reorder point is the actual work
No business forgets to reorder out of carelessness. The reason is more mundane: the stock figure in the system says how much is there, not when it runs out. Between 60 units in stock and we need them on Thursday sit two numbers that are rarely recorded anywhere: how fast the item moves and how long the supplier takes. Both live in the head of the person who knows the store room – and are missing the moment that person is on holiday.
The real difficulty is therefore not the alert but the threshold. A reorder point is not a fixed number, it is a calculation: usage per working day times lead time, plus safety stock. All three values move. Lead times stretch, consumption swings with the order book, and a threshold set once and never revisited either fires constantly – after three weeks nobody reads it any more – or fires too late, and the installation stops.
There is a second hurdle that looks technical and is not: the stock figure has to be unambiguous. Goods reserved for a live job, material sitting in a service van, an order that is already on its way – if none of that is deducted or netted off, you either order twice or not at all. The work is not in sending the email. It is in three decisions: which figure counts, what gets deducted from it, and who approves the order.
Which items are worth it
We start with the item group that moves steadily and whose lead times are known. Further groups later use the same calculation with their own values.
Consumables in the store room
The most common starting point: items with steady usage, a fixed supplier and a short lead time. The calculation from usage and lead time is most reliable here because the history is solid.
Spare and wear parts
Parts whose absence stops a job. Value matters less than criticality here: the safety stock is deliberately set higher than the statistics suggest.
Items with long lead times
Six weeks of lead time push the reorder point far upwards. These are exactly the items that get noticed last by hand, because they move slowly.
Stock with a seasonal pattern
When spring usage is three times the winter figure, a rigid average misleads. In that case we calculate against the same period of the previous year.
C-parts and small quantities
Screws, cable ties, labels: individually too trivial to notice, collectively a daily irritation. We group these into one combined order per supplier instead of many separate alerts.
Stock held in service vans
Decentralised stock that often does not appear in the ERP at all. The first question here is who books the withdrawal – only then is an alert worth building.
One item across eleven working days
The staircase shows stock in the morning, one step lower after every withdrawal. The dashed line is the reorder point at which the proposal is triggered.
- Avg. usage
- 12 pcs per working day
- × Lead time
- 5 working days
- + Safety stock
- 40 pcs
- = Reorder point
- 100 pcs
- above reorder point
- below it – proposal sent
- lead time
- safety stock
What matters is not the alert but the gap between reorder point and safety stock. That gap is the time buffer the lead time needs – set it too small and even the most punctual warning no longer helps.
The reorder point of 100 units is calculated, not guessed: 12 units of usage per working day times 5 working days of lead time gives 60, plus 40 units of safety stock. Only 48 units were actually withdrawn during those five days – which is why the delivery arrived with 8 units to spare.
From stock level to an approved order
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Define the stock source
We decide which figure counts – book stock, free available stock or stock minus reservations. That single source is read daily or on every posting, and every other list loses its claim to be right.
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Calculate a reorder point per item
Usage over recent weeks, the recorded lead time and a safety stock produce an individual threshold for each item. No blanket percentage rule across the whole item master.
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Net off open orders
Quantities already on order, with their expected delivery date, are deducted. What remains is the real gap – which removes the duplicate order that manual watch lists produce so regularly.
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A proposal, not an alarm
Once a day one bundled list goes to the responsible person, sorted by urgency. Each line carries the quantity rounded to pack size, the supplier, the last purchase price and the date the item would otherwise run dry.
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Approve, order, follow up
After approval the order is created in the ERP or sent to the supplier by email, and the expected delivery date is recorded. Overdue deliveries are reported without being asked, and every decision stays logged.
What changes day to day
Today
- Minimum levels get reviewed by hand whenever there is time
- The shortage surfaces at the moment the material is needed
- Ordering runs on instinct, often too much or too late
- Goods already in transit get ordered a second time
- Alerts arrive one by one as email and get lost
With inventory alerts
- Every item is checked daily against its own threshold
- The shortage becomes visible one full lead time in advance
- The quantity is calculated and rounded to pack sizes
- Open orders are deducted before a proposal is created
- One list per day and owner, sorted by urgency
What an inventory alert cannot do
The calculation is only as good as the numbers going into it. We clarify these four points before quoting – in some businesses two of them argue against the project:
- Wrong stock figures do not become right through automation, they only take effect faster. If withdrawals are not booked, the workflow will reliably flag the wrong items and miss the right ones. Where book stock regularly differs from the shelf by more than one pack, booking withdrawals is the first project, not the alert. That is a matter of habit, not technology.
- Without a usage history there is no calculated reorder point. For items needed three or four times a year, any average is coincidence. Those positions get a value set by hand from experience, and we say openly that it remains an estimate. The one-off large job cannot be predicted either: if somebody knows that 400 units are needed next month, that information has to be entered as demand – otherwise nobody but them knows it.
- With few moving items this is not worth it. If you carry 30 to 40 positions, buy everything from one merchant with next-day delivery and walk through the store room every Friday anyway, you do not need a workflow – you need a fixed slot and a list. The same applies if your ERP ships a usable reorder report that was simply never configured: we will say so in the intro call, because configuring it is the cheaper answer.
- We do not recommend fully automatic ordering as a starting point. Price changes, minimum order values, a changed supplier or an unusually large quantity belong in front of a person who knows the case. We are happy to build automatic release, but limited to explicitly approved standard items with a value ceiling. Negotiating, checking framework agreements and choosing suppliers stays your job.
Fits your stock keeping
Scope and price
The entry price covers one stock source, one item group and one daily proposal list. What moves the price, we say before the quote.
- Connection to one authoritative stock source: ERP, warehouse system or list
- Reorder point rule for one item group, calculated from usage and lead time
- Open orders netted off, including the expected delivery date
- One bundled proposal list per owner, by email or in Teams
- Proposal with quantity, pack size, supplier and last purchase price
- One-click approval and a log of the decision, rejections included
- Documentation, handover session and 30 days of support
What increases the price
- Several stores or sites with separate stock figures
- Seasonal or trend factor instead of a moving average
- Creating the order directly in the ERP instead of emailing the supplier
- Supplier prices, quantity breaks and framework agreements in the proposal
- Item master without maintained lead times and pack sizes
Several sites with a seasonal factor and order creation directly in the ERP typically land in the range of our Workflow Advanced package from €2,490. We quote the binding fixed price after the intro call.
All prices excl. VAT · operation and further development optionally via a support package
What you get
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A running stock check
Daily or event-driven, with a documented source and a calculation you can follow
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Reorder points per item
Calculated, visible in a table and changeable by you without us
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Proposal list with approval
Bundled, prioritised and carrying everything the order needs
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Handover for purchasing and the store room
How safety stock is set and what to do when a lead time changes
Frequently asked questions about inventory alerts
These solutions fit alongside
Purchase Request Automation
The step after: the proposal becomes a request with cost centre and approval.
Order Confirmation Checks
Delivery date and quantity from the supplier confirmation feed back into the open order.
Spreadsheet Data Sync
For when stock lives in several tables today and one source has to be created first.
E-commerce Automation
Keeping stock aligned across shop, marketplace and warehouse rather than only watching it.
Do you know which item runs out next?
In the free intro call we look at your stock data and calculate the reorder point for two or three real items. Afterwards you know whether the numbers hold up – and whether the workflow is worth it at your item count at all.
Book a free intro callWhere automated inventory alerts creates value in everyday work
The workflow monitors defined stock, considers open orders and usage, groups relevant alerts and prepares the next action.
Three concrete operating scenarios to compare with your own process.Monitor consumables
Gloves, packaging or office supplies become visible before a shortage.
Track spare parts
Critical parts consider reservations, lead time and quantities on order.
Prioritise alerts
Value, criticality and expected demand sort the daily list.
A strong fit when …
Recurring office tasks follow clear rules, consume small blocks of time every day and should run reliably without replacing existing systems.
- You handle recurring inventory items using repeatable rules.
- The intake, target system and accountable business role can be named clearly.
- Exceptions are allowed to remain visible and move to people deliberately.
Deliberate automation boundary
Automatic ordering is limited to explicitly approved standard items and thresholds. Price changes, new suppliers and unusual consumption go to people.
Explore the technical approach and platformsEstimate time savings with your own volume
The calculator uses 3 minutes today and 1 minutes after automation as fixed example assumptions. It does not replace process analysis.
Illustrative estimate based on the visible assumptions — not a guarantee.