What is par level?

Par-level replenishment asks one question on a schedule: how far below par is this item, and how much does it take to top it back up? A restaurant kitchen sets par at 6 cases of fryer oil; the Thursday check finds 2; the order is 4. No demand forecasting, no per-item reorder math, just a target and a routine. Pars shine where consumption is steady, items are consumables, and the people doing the restocking aren't inventory specialists: kitchens, clinic exam rooms, janitorial closets, service trucks, first aid stations. A truck stocked to par every Monday morning means the technician starts each week with a known kit instead of whatever last week left behind. The difference from a reorder point is the trigger. A reorder point fires when stock crosses a threshold, whenever that happens. Par-level checks happen on a calendar, which matches how suppliers actually deliver to these settings: the food distributor comes Tuesday and Friday regardless. Where teams trip: setting pars once and letting them fossilize. A par set during the busy season quietly becomes overstock in the slow season, and a new service line can make the old truck par useless. Review pars when usage shifts, and track which items repeatedly hit zero before the scheduled check; those pars are too low.