How do we design weekly scorecard metrics for our inventory control and purchasing seat that prevent over-ordering while keeping our manufacturing line running smoothly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Inventory control is a balance between cash flow and operational readiness. If you only track stock outs, your purchasing manager will over-buy to ensure they never run out of raw materials, which ties up your cash. If you only track cash spend, your operations manager will suffer from production shutdowns because of delayed parts.

To solve this, pair two competing measurables under the purchasing seat on your Accountability Chart. The first is raw material stock outs, with a target of zero. The second is total inventory holding value, with a strict ceiling target.

By tracking both weekly, the owner of the seat must balance cash preservation and production security. They cannot optimize one at the expense of the other.

Another powerful leading indicator is the supplier on-time delivery rate. Instead of waiting for a shipment to be late, track the percentage of weekly open purchase orders confirmed by vendors to ship on time. This gives your team a seven-day window to react and find alternative sources before production halts.

When these numbers drift, do not just accept the excuse of global supply chain issues. Bring the metric to your Level 10 Meeting™ and use IDS® to identify if the root cause is poor vendor selection, bad forecasting, or a capacity issue in your purchasing department. This keeps your back-office aligned with real-time operations.