What is reorder quantity?

The reorder point says when to order; the reorder quantity says how many. The two are independent settings, and conflating them is a common setup error: a perfect trigger followed by an order for a week's worth of stock just schedules the next emergency. A workable baseline sizes the order to cover expected usage over a chosen cycle (how often you want to place orders for this item) and tops up to that level. Order too little and you pay ordering and freight costs repeatedly while flirting with stockouts; order too much and carrying cost eats the convenience. EOQ formalizes that trade-off where the volumes justify it. Reality then adjusts the math. Supplier minimums and case packs round the number, price breaks can justify going a tier up if the extra units will move within a reasonable window, shelf life caps the order for dated goods, and storage space is a hard ceiling. A drafted reorder quantity that ignores the 24-unit case pack creates a PO the supplier will round anyway, just less predictably. Where teams trip: setting quantities once at setup and never revisiting. Usage doubles, the quantity doesn't, and the item starts stockout-cycling. Reorder quantities should move when usage, lead time, or supplier terms move, which is exactly the kind of drift a system watching live usage can flag and redraft for approval.