Building Restocking Routes That Scale

Start from the calendar, not the map

Group sites by service frequency first — weekly, fortnightly, monthly — then cluster geographically inside each frequency band.

Par levels beat guesswork

Set a par level per selection and restock to par. Telemetry helps, but a written par sheet gets you 80% of the benefit for free.

Planogram discipline

• Best sellers at eye level
• Never more than two facings for a slow mover
• Review the bottom five selections every quarter and cut them

Rule of 40

One well-designed route with par levels and pre-picked totes supports roughly 40 machines per operator. Without them, most people stall at 15.