Amazon Ops Restock Training
This module shows how Brent and Fergus's restock process has been incorporated into Amazon Ops. The point is to move through the tiles in order so Franz can turn inventory, velocity, lead time, and judgment into a clean restock order form.
High-quality narration
Business question
What should we buy, how much should we buy, from whom, and how urgent is it?
Core formula
((target days + lead time days) × daily velocity) - available inventory, then round to MOQ/case pack.
Human review
Amazon Ops recommends. Brent/Fergus still verify seasonality, supplier issues, margin, listing health, and weird data.
The tile-by-tile path
1. Start: Dashboard / urgent signals
Purpose: identify what needs attention before going deep. Franz should look for low days of cover, stockout risk, missing mapping, stale data warnings, and anything flagged as operationally urgent.
Why it exists: without a starting dashboard, restock work becomes random SKU browsing. The dashboard creates a priority queue.
2. Warehouse Inventory
Purpose: understand what is physically in the building. This protects us from ordering product we already own but have not moved, prepped, reconciled, or reflected correctly elsewhere.
Key question: is this current usable warehouse stock, old starting balance, returns, replacements, golden stock, or a count that needs verification?
3. SKU Mapping Validation
Purpose: make sure the SKU/ASIN/product connection is correct before trusting calculations. A mapping error can make the right math point at the wrong product.
Key question: are we looking at the right Amazon listing, internal SKU, supplier item, and warehouse count?
4. Restock Dashboard
Purpose: combine inventory, inbound, velocity, and risk into the restock working view. This is where Franz begins converting data into a possible reorder decision.
Important parts: on hand, inbound, daily velocity, days of cover, lead time, target cover, suggested quantity, risk flags, and notes.
5. Inventory Health / FBA Inventory
Purpose: check what Amazon actually has and whether it is sellable, reserved, inbound, unfulfillable, aging, or stuck. Total inventory is not always usable inventory.
Key mistake to avoid: counting inventory that cannot cover future demand.
6. Sales Velocity
Purpose: decide whether demand is real and how quickly inventory will disappear. Use 7-day, 30-day, and 60/90-day windows when available.
Why multiple windows exist: short windows catch changes; longer windows protect us from overreacting to a spike or dip.
7. Days of Cover / Stockout Risk
Purpose: translate inventory and velocity into time. Days of cover is more useful than raw inventory because 200 units can be safe for a slow SKU and dangerous for a fast SKU.
Formula: available inventory ÷ daily velocity.
8. Lead Time + Target Cover
Purpose: decide how much stock we need before the next order can arrive and become useful. Lead time includes supplier time, shipping, processing, check-in, and practical delays.
9. Suggested Order Quantity
Purpose: convert the reviewed inputs into a preliminary reorder number.
Example: daily velocity 10/day, target 60 days, lead time 20 days, available inventory 250. Required coverage is 80 × 10 = 800. Suggested reorder is 800 - 250 = 550 units. Then round to case pack.
10. Manual Exception Review
Purpose: keep the business from blindly following math. Check seasonality, temporary spikes, listing problems, supplier delays, margin, discontinued items, and Brent/Fergus preferences.
11. Restock Order Form
Purpose: final order-ready output after review. This is where confirmed quantities, supplier, MOQ/case pack, notes, and uncertainty get documented.
Rule: if the notes are unclear, the order is not ready.
12. Prep & Pack Workspace
Purpose: once inventory is coming or available, support the downstream work so product can actually become sellable. Restock is not complete until product can flow through prep and into Amazon or the correct channel.
Franz practice assignment
- Pick one SKU that looks like it needs reorder.
- Write down available inventory, inbound, and daily velocity.
- Calculate days of cover.
- Calculate suggested reorder quantity.
- Round to case pack.
- Write one sentence explaining why the order should or should not happen.
- Ask Fergus/Brent to review before treating it as real.
Pass condition
Franz can explain the recommendation in plain English without hiding behind the spreadsheet.