Electric Wheelchair Replenishment Planning Guide

Most distributors do not run out of electric wheelchairs because they forgot to order. They run out because the order went in too late, for too few units, while demand was already moving. Good electric wheelchair replenishment planning is not complicated software or a wall of spreadsheets. It is a simple habit: know what you sell, know how long replacement takes, and reorder before the shelf is empty rather than after.

Why do distributors run out when sales look steady?

Sales rarely move in a flat line. A local dealer may place a bulk order after a trade show. A care home may replace several chairs in one month. A tender win can clear a month of stock in a week. None of this shows up in a simple monthly average until it is already too late. The second cause is the gap between deciding and receiving. A factory needs time to produce and ship, and shipping needs its own window on top of that. During that gap, you are selling from whatever is already on the shelf. If the gap is longer than your remaining stock lasts, you stock out — even if the order itself was placed "on time" by the calendar. The third cause is invisible stock. Units sitting in a showroom, out on demo, or already promised to a customer are not available to sell, but they often still show up in a headcount. A reorder plan built on a headcount that includes those units will always order too late.

What actually goes into a reorder point?

A reorder point is the stock level that tells you to order now. It has three inputs, and only three. First, demand: how many chairs you typically sell in a given period. Use your own sales records, not a forecast from a supplier. If you sell e.g. 20 chairs a month, that is roughly 5 a week. Seasonal swings matter here — if summer months run higher, use the higher figure for the busy season rather than the yearly average. Second, lead time: how long it takes from placing an order to having sellable chairs in your warehouse. Our factory lead time is 7 days after payment, and that figure is confirmed — but it is only the factory part. Shipping time sits on top of it, and it varies by route and method. Our lead times guide explains how factory time, shipping time, and inspection time add up, so you can build the full gap rather than guessing at it. Third, safety stock: a buffer for the things that do not go to plan. Demand spikes, a delayed vessel, a batch held for inspection — the buffer covers the gap between the plan and reality. Without it, every small delay becomes a stockout. Put together, the logic is simple: reorder point equals demand during the lead time, plus safety stock. If you sell 5 chairs a week and replacement takes e.g. 4 weeks door to door, you need 20 chairs to cover the gap — plus whatever buffer you hold. When on-hand stock falls to that number, you order. No meeting, no debate, no waiting until Friday.

How do you set safety stock without guessing?

Safety stock is where most small distributors either overdo it or skip it entirely. Both mistakes cost money. Too much buffer ties up cash in chairs sitting in a warehouse. Too little means the first delay empties the shelf. Start from variability, not from a percentage you read somewhere. Ask two questions. How much does weekly demand swing? If a normal week is 5 chairs but a good week is 9, the swing is 4. How often do deliveries slip, and by how much? If shipping usually lands within a week of plan but sometimes slips by e.g. a week, that slip is part of the buffer. A practical starting point is to hold enough buffer to cover one normal cycle of variation — for example, one extra week of demand at your busy-season rate. Then review it. If you stock out twice in a quarter, the buffer is too thin. If the buffer never gets touched for six months, it is too fat. Safety stock is a setting you tune, not a number you set once and forget. One more distinction matters. Safety stock is about timing, not about keeping chairs in good condition while they wait. Storage conditions — temperature, humidity, battery charge, carton stacking — are a separate job. Our warehouse storage guide covers that side in detail, so this plan can stay focused on when to order rather than how to store.

How do spare parts fit into the same plan?

Chairs are not the only thing that stocks out. A customer with a failed controller or a worn tire does not wait patiently for your next chair order. Spares need their own reorder points, but the method is the same: demand, lead time, buffer. Start with the fast movers. Tires, chargers, and controllers account for most after-sales requests, because they wear out or fail first. These deserve a standing buffer and a short review cycle — check them every time you review chair stock, not once a quarter. Our spare-parts stocking guide goes deeper on which parts move fastest and how to keep slow-moving parts from tying up cash. Slow movers need a different treatment. A specific motor or a frame part may sell only a few times a year. Holding deep stock of those is wasteful. For slow movers, a single unit on the shelf plus a confirmed fast reorder route is usually enough — provided you actually know the route works, which means testing it before you need it. Warranty spares sit in their own category. When a chair fails inside its warranty window — frame 36 months, battery 6 months for lead-acid or 12 months for lithium, motor, and controller 12 months each — the customer expects a fix, not a wait for your next bulk order. Holding a small, separate buffer for warranty repairs keeps claims moving and protects the relationship. Our warranty claims playbook covers what evidence to collect and how to keep a claim from stalling while parts are in transit.

Should you reorder on a calendar, on a threshold, or both?

Both, in practice. A calendar review catches slow drift. A threshold trigger catches sudden drops. Either one alone leaves a hole. A weekly review works for most small and mid-size distributors. Once a week, someone checks on-hand stock against the reorder points, counts what is on order and in transit, and places orders for anything at or below its trigger. The review takes under an hour once the sheet exists, and it stops the most common failure: nobody looking. A threshold trigger handles the weeks between reviews. If a bulk order lands on Tuesday and clears half the shelf, waiting until Monday's review is too late. The rule is simple: the moment any item hits its reorder point, the order goes in, whatever day it is. Larger distributors often automate the threshold — a warehouse system flags the item automatically. Smaller ones can do the same job with a whiteboard or a shared sheet. The tool does not matter. What matters is that the trigger is written down and someone owns it.

What does a simple reorder sheet look like?

You do not need special software. A single sheet with one row per item is enough. The columns are: item, on hand, on order, in transit, weekly demand, lead time, reorder point, and action. Fill it from your own records, and update it at each review.

Item	On hand (e.g.)	On order (e.g.)	Weekly demand (e.g.)	Lead time (e.g.)	Reorder point (e.g.)	Action
Folding wheelchair, standard model	24	0	5	4 weeks	25	Order now
Folding wheelchair, heavy-duty model	12	10	2	4 weeks	10	Watch
Replacement tires, pair	30	0	4	3 weeks	16	Watch
Chargers, 2A lithium	8	0	3	3 weeks	12	Order now
Controllers, brushless	4	0	1	3 weeks	5	Order now

Every figure in this table is an example, not a recommendation for your stock levels. Your numbers come from your sales records and your confirmed lead times. The point of the table is the discipline: one row per item, updated weekly, with a clear action at the end of each row. Shipping method affects the lead time column, and it is worth getting that column right. Sea, air, and express each carry different windows and different costs, and the cheapest option is not always the right one when a stockout is near. Our shipping methods guide compares the three so you can match the method to the urgency rather than defaulting to the same route every time.

What mistakes make a good plan fail?

The first mistake is ordering on gut feel. "We seem to be selling well, let's order more" is not a plan. It produces overstock after a quiet month and stockouts after a busy one. The reorder point exists precisely so that feeling does not decide. The second mistake is forgetting what is already on the way. An order placed last week and still in transit is stock you already own. Forgetting it and ordering the same chairs again leads to double ordering and a warehouse full of chairs nobody needs yet. The sheet's "on order" and "in transit" columns exist to stop this. The third mistake is skipping inspection on arrival. A replenishment plan assumes that what arrives is sellable. If a batch arrives with damage or missing paperwork, and nobody checks until a customer complains, the plan's numbers are fiction. Our incoming inspection checklist gives a receiving routine that catches problems at the dock, while there is still time to fix them. The fourth mistake is never updating the plan. Demand changes, models change, suppliers change. A reorder point set a year ago from old sales figures is a guess wearing a plan's clothes. Review the inputs every quarter: demand rates, lead times, and buffer sizes. If any of them moved, the reorder points move too.

FAQ

How often should a small distributor review stock?

Once a week is enough for most small distributors, provided the threshold trigger also runs between reviews. A weekly review catches slow drift, and the trigger catches sudden drops. If weekly reviews keep finding items already below their reorder point, move to twice a week rather than adding more safety stock.

Should safety stock be the same for every model?

No. Fast-selling models and models with volatile demand need a bigger buffer. Slow, steady sellers need less. Set the buffer from each model's own demand swing and delivery reliability, not from a single rule applied across the range.

What if the factory lead time changes?

Update the reorder point immediately, before the next review. Lead time is a direct input: a longer lead time means a higher reorder point, because you need more stock to cover the longer gap. Confirm the new figure in writing with the factory rather than assuming it, and record the date it changed so the next review can see why the numbers moved.

How do I handle a sudden bulk order?

Treat it as a threshold event, not as a reason to rewrite the plan. If the bulk order drops stock to or below the reorder point, order immediately. If it also changes your view of future demand — for example, a new dealer who will order regularly — update the demand figure at the next quarterly review, not in the heat of the moment.

Do spare parts need their own reorder points?

Yes. Spares have their own demand rates, lead times, and buffers, and they stock out independently of chairs. Fast movers get a standing buffer and a weekly check. Slow movers get a single unit plus a tested fast reorder route. Warranty spares get a small separate buffer so claims never wait on a bulk chair order.

Good replenishment is unglamorous, and that is the point. Nobody celebrates a shelf that never empties, but every distributor knows the cost of the week it does: lost sales, rushed freight, and customers who buy elsewhere. A written reorder point per item, a weekly review, a threshold trigger between reviews, and a quarterly tune-up of the inputs — that is the whole method. Done steadily, electric wheelchair replenishment planning turns stock from a recurring emergency into a routine, and the routine is what keeps the business selling while competitors are waiting on their next shipment. Key Takeaway: Set one reorder point per item from your own demand and confirmed lead time, review stock weekly, trigger orders the moment any item hits its point, and retune the numbers every quarter — the plan is only as good as its last update.