Alert when a line's months of cover rises above a threshold you set, checked monthly rather than continuously. Dead stock forms silently: no event fires, nobody is blocked, and the cost accrues in capital and space until somebody runs a report. Almost every option for dealing with it is cheaper early.
Why this one is worth an interruption
This is the slowest-moving problem in the cluster and the one where early detection pays the most. A product you notice slowing in month two can be discounted lightly, bundled or returned to a supplier. The same product noticed in month fourteen can only be dumped.
It is worth being explicit that this belongs in a monthly digest, not in an alert channel. Nothing about it needs acting on today, and putting it where urgent things live is how urgent things stop being read.
The threshold
Cover, not sales volume. A slow product that you only hold six weeks of is not a problem.
| Condition | Set it to | Why that number |
|---|---|---|
| Primary trigger | months of cover above your reorder cycle multiplied by a factor | Relative to how you buy, not an absolute |
| Secondary | zero sales in 60 to 90 days | Catches lines the cover calculation misses |
| Check cadence | monthly | Nothing here changes day to day |
| Exclude | seasonal lines out of season | Otherwise every winter product flags in July |
| Exclude | newly launched lines | They have no sales history to judge |
Who should receive it
Whoever buys, because the finding is really about a past purchasing decision.
- Whoever makes buying decisions.
- Whoever can authorise a discount or a clearance.
- Not the whole team, and not in an alert channel. This is digest material.
What to do when it fires
- Check whether it is genuinely slowing or simply out of season before acting.
- Decide the action while options still exist: discount lightly, bundle, return to supplier, or accept and stop reordering.
- Stop reordering it first. That is the cheapest action and it is often forgotten while people debate the discount.
- Ask what the slow lines have in common, because that is the purchasing lesson.
When not to set this alert
Do not put this in an alert channel. It is a monthly review item, and treating it as urgent devalues the alerts that are.
Do not set it on a catalogue with heavy seasonality unless you can exclude out-of-season lines. Otherwise it fires on everything twice a year and gets muted permanently.
Common questions
How do I know when stock is becoming dead?
Watch months of cover relative to your reorder cycle rather than absolute sales. A line holding far more cover than your buying cycle needs is heading toward dead stock even if it is still technically selling.
Should this be an alert or a report?
A monthly report. Nothing about slow-moving stock needs acting on today, and putting it in an alert channel trains people to skim the channel where urgent things live.
What is the first action?
Stop reordering it. That is free, immediate and frequently forgotten while people debate what discount to apply.