Moving goods costs money at every step
Stock sitting in a warehouse costs money. Stock you've run out of costs more. Freight that's been classed wrong costs a surprise bill. Logistics is mostly about balancing those three problems, and doing it with numbers rather than hunches.
The six tools here cover inventory, freight, storage and feed. They run in your browser and keep your inputs private.
Reorder point and EOQ
The reorder point tells you when to place the next order. It's your average daily demand times your lead time, plus safety stock for the days when demand spikes or the supplier runs late. Set a service level, such as 95 percent, and the calculator figures out how much safety stock you need.
Economic order quantity answers a different question: how much to order each time. Order too little and you pay fixed ordering costs over and over. Order too much and holding costs eat you alive. EOQ finds the lowest-cost point between the two.
The tool shows a table of fixed order sizes and a sensitivity chart. You'll notice the curve is flat near the optimum, so ordering a bit more or less than EOQ costs very little. That helps when suppliers sell in cases or pallets.
Inventory turnover and wholesale markup
Turnover shows how many times a year you sell through your stock. Days sales of inventory flips it into days. A grocery store may turn stock thirty times a year. A furniture store may manage four. Compare yourself with your own industry, not a different one.
The inventory turnover calculator gives both figures. Low turnover usually means cash is trapped in products that aren't moving.
The wholesale markup calculator works from your cost and target profit to a wholesale price, a retail price and the margin at each step. Remember that markup and margin aren't the same thing. A 100 percent markup is a 50 percent margin.
Freight class (NMFC)
Less-than-truckload carriers price shipments by freight class. Class depends on density, handling, stowability and liability. Density is the main driver: pounds per cubic foot.
The freight class calculator takes your dimensions and weight, works out density and returns the NMFC class. A lookup for common commodities is included, along with a full density table and a rough rate indicator.
Why does it matter? A wrong class gets corrected by the carrier at inspection, and you get billed the difference plus fees. Measure carefully and include the pallet in your dimensions.
Storing commodities and blending feed
Farmers and traders face a classic question: sell now or hold and hope for a better price? The commodity storage ROI simulator models a hold decision month by month. It accounts for spoilage, financing cost and storage fees, finds the break-even price and shows a verdict badge.
Many holds lose money, because the gain needed to cover interest and shrink is bigger than it looks. Run the numbers before you commit grain to a bin.
The feed blending optimizer finds the cheapest mix of ingredients that still meets nutrition needs for an animal type. You add ingredients and prices, and a solver works in 5 percent steps. Compliance badges show whether the mix meets targets. Check any recipe with a nutritionist or vet before feeding it.
Three habits that help
Update your numbers often. Lead times and demand change, and old inputs give old answers.
Track supplier reliability. A supplier who's late twice a quarter needs more safety stock than one who's always on time.
Review slow-moving items every month. Discount or bundle them before they become dead stock.
What the tools assume
The models assume demand is steady and costs are known. Real life is lumpier. Treat results as a starting plan, then adjust when reality disagrees.
A reorder example
Suppose you sell 40 units a week, the supplier takes two weeks and you want a small cushion of 20 units. Your reorder point is 40 times 2, plus 20, so 100. When stock hits 100, you order.
Now the order size. If each order costs 60 to place, holding a unit costs 4 a year and you sell about 2,080 a year, economic order quantity is the square root of (2 times 2,080 times 60 divided by 4), which is roughly 250. That balances ordering cost against holding cost.
Real life has quirks, like supplier minimums and pallet sizes. Use the result as a base and adjust.
Turnover and what it tells you
Inventory turnover shows how many times a year you sell through stock. High turnover means cash isn't stuck on shelves. Very high might mean you run out too often. Low turnover means money is sleeping in boxes.
Compare against similar businesses, not against a different industry. A grocery and a furniture store live on different numbers.