The Ordering Readiness Self-Assessment

The ladder. Every store orders on one of four rungs: gut, where the person orders what feels right. Rep, where the supplier decides. Report, where a system suggests off numbers nobody audits. Or truth, where orders generate from demonstrated demand on a ledger somebody proves daily. Most independents live on the first two rungs and pay for it in both directions, empty shelves and dead stock at once.

The twelve questions

1. Does anyone in the business know each top line’s true rate of sale, corrected for the days it stood empty?
2. Do your orders change when the shelf was empty half of last week, or does the system read the low sales as low demand?
3. Does the order build ahead of payday, or react after it?
4. Do pack families read as one product, so the case and the single stop hiding each other’s demand?
5. Are there lines a rep decides for you, and could you say what they cost you last quarter?
6. Does your ordering respect each supplier’s real delivery rhythm as the receipts prove it, or a schedule someone typed in years ago?
7. When money is tight, do your must-have lines keep their depth while the flexible lines scale?
8. Can you see tomorrow’s suggested order before it is placed, line by line, with a reason per line?
9. Is dead stock excluded from reordering automatically, or does it depend on someone remembering?
10. Does a new line get a fair trial with a review date, or does it drift into the range forever?
11. Did your last stock reduction come from a plan, or from running out?
12. If your best orderer left tomorrow, would the ordering survive?

Reading your score

Count your yes answers. Nine or more: you are close to the top rung, and automation would compound what already works. Five to eight: the pieces exist and the discipline is partial, start with demand truth and delivery rhythm. Under five: do not automate anything yet. Automation built on an unproven ledger repeats mistakes faster. Fix presence first, then demand, then let the machine help.

What next. If this guide found problems, the Store Health Audit quantifies them in rand and hands you the plan. If it found none, your store is rarer than you think.