Stock and reorder points

How much to hold

As a baseline, hold enough material for the current month's run plus 50% buffer, and enough envelopes and packaging for two months, since packaging suppliers tend to have longer lead times than vinyl suppliers. For a 300-member club printing single-sheet drops, that's roughly 450 sticker-sheet equivalents of vinyl on hand and 600 envelopes.

Setting your reorder point

Calculate reorder point as your supplier's lead time in days multiplied by your average daily usage, plus a safety buffer of 20-30%. If a vinyl roll takes 10 days to arrive and you use roughly 15 sheets' worth a day during a print push, reorder when you hit about 150-200 sheets remaining, not when the shelf looks empty.

• Reorder point = lead time (days) x daily usage x 1.2-1.3 buffer
• Recalculate whenever a supplier's lead time changes
• Track usage separately for vinyl, laminate, envelopes and cards
• Set a calendar reminder rather than relying on visual stock checks

Seasonal spikes and supplier risk

Holiday months and any month you run a special or a waitlist reopen will spike usage well above average, so pad reorder points upward in November and December specifically. It's also worth qualifying a second supplier for your core vinyl and laminate stock, even if you never use them, so a single supplier's delay never becomes your crisis.

A worked example

Say your club runs 320 members, uses one 6x8 sheet per member plus a 10% overage for replacements and samples, and your vinyl supplier quotes a 12-day lead time. Monthly usage is about 352 sheet-equivalents, or roughly 12 sheets a day spread across a three-week production window. Reorder point sits at 12 days x 12 sheets x 1.25 buffer, which is 180 sheets remaining — round up to 200 for a clean trigger number and write it on the shelf, not just in a spreadsheet you might not open that week.

Tracking stock without overcomplicating it

You don't need inventory software for a club this size. A single shared spreadsheet with current stock, reorder point, and last order date per material is enough, as long as someone actually updates it after every delivery and every production run. The failure mode isn't a lack of a system, it's a system nobody maintains once the first busy month arrives.