Replenishment fears two types: one always afraid of stockout hoards goods, one always afraid of overstock hesitates. A data dashboard gets you out of instinct.
Metric 1: Days of Cover
Days of cover = current sellable ÷ average daily sales. Below the replenishment cycle, order. This is the number to watch daily.
Metric 2: Inventory turnover
Reflects how fast money moves. Consistently falling means liquidate; consistently rising with sellable warning means add stock.
Metric 3: In-transit + in-warehouse
Separate "already on the way" from "already in warehouse." Watching only in-warehouse misleads; in-transit is future sellable too.
A dashboard isn't decoration; it lets you see the signal two weeks before stockout.
Spend five minutes daily on these three numbers — far lower cost than finding problems at month-end reconciliation.