What Is a Reorder Method in Inventory Planning?

A reorder method is a stocked product's replenishment rule: none, reorder point, or min-max. It decides whether and how a falling inventory balance triggers a fresh build or purchase. It is a single attribute on the product record, and it is the difference between a shelf that quietly refills itself and one that only moves when someone types an order.

This entry defines the reorder method and shows how it reads inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the threshold concept in general, see the reorder point definition; and for the attribute that decides whether an item is stocked at all, see build method.

How it works

The reorder method has three settings, and each governs the trigger that turns a low balance into a proposed order.

• None: no automatic replenishment. The product is built or bought only to order. Custom items live here.
• Reorder point: replenishment fires when on-hand drops below a set threshold. When gloves fall below 10, order more. The classic when-to-order rule.
• Min-max: keep stock between a minimum and a maximum. When on-hand drops below the minimum, order enough to top back up to the maximum. This answers both when and how much.

The reorder method only makes sense for a stocked product, and it works alongside safety stock. Safety stock is the buffer you want to keep in reserve; the reorder method is the rule that decides when the system proposes to refill toward or above that buffer. A reorder point set below safety stock leaves no protection, so the two are usually set together.

A key discipline: a replenishment the method proposes is a suggestion, not supply. It shows on the planning calendar but does not lift the projected balance until a planner firms it into a real order. The projection reports what happens if nobody acts, which is the honest picture a planner needs before acting.

A concrete example

Reorder point is the household toilet-paper rule: when you drop below 2 rolls, buy 12 more. One threshold, one fixed reorder quantity.

Min-max is the safety-gloves rule: keep between 20 and 100 pairs. When stock falls to 15, that is below the minimum of 20, so the system proposes an order sized to reach the 100 maximum, a suggested 85 pairs. If instead it had fallen only to 22, nothing fires, because you are still above the minimum. Min-max produces a variable order size that always aims at the ceiling; reorder point produces a fixed reorder quantity each time the floor is breached.

None is the custom-cabinet rule: you do not keep finished custom cabinets on a shelf, so there is no threshold to defend. Every cabinet is built against a specific order.

How EDGEBIC uses it

In EDGEBIC, the reorder method is a field on the product record with the values none, reorder point, and min-max, alongside the threshold levels each method reads. On a projection run, the inventory calendar rolls the balance forward bucket by bucket, and where the balance falls below the method's trigger, a replenishment suggestion is placed in its own column, sized by the method: a set quantity for reorder point, a top-up to maximum for min-max.

Firming a suggestion turns it into a real build-to-stock order, which then appears as a scheduled receipt on the next run and lifts the projected balance from its completion bucket forward. Until you firm it, the suggestion never pretends to be supply, so a chronically short item honestly shows several shortfall rows rather than hiding them behind an assumed order.

To see how a suggestion becomes a real order, read what is a replenishment suggestion and EDGEBIC forecasting and replenishment explained. To follow the balance the method reacts to, continue with opening balance.