Supply Chain and Operations Analytics Cheat Sheet

Updated 2026-05-23

Supply chain and operations analytics is the discipline of applying quantitative methods, KPIs, and data-driven models to plan, monitor, and optimize the flow of goods, information, and money across the entire value chain — from raw-material procurement through last-mile delivery. It sits at the intersection of operations research, business intelligence, and data science, and it underpins decisions in inventory, logistics, supplier management, and integrated planning. A practitioner's key insight is that every metric in this domain interacts with the service-cost-cash triangle: improving one dimension almost always creates trade-offs in the other two, so analytics must quantify those trade-offs rather than optimize a single KPI in isolation.

What This Cheat Sheet Covers

This topic spans 15 focused tables and 114 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.

Table 1: Inventory Efficiency MetricsTable 2: Replenishment and Stock Optimization CalculationsTable 3: Demand Forecasting ModelsTable 4: Forecast Accuracy MetricsTable 5: Inventory Classification MethodsTable 6: Service Level and Order Fulfillment KPIsTable 7: Supplier Scorecard and Vendor Performance MetricsTable 8: Lead Time AnalysisTable 9: Safety Stock and Inventory Optimization StrategiesTable 10: S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) MetricsTable 11: Transportation and Freight Cost AnalyticsTable 12: Warehouse Productivity MetricsTable 13: Bullwhip Effect Detection and MitigationTable 14: Supply Chain Control Tower and Visibility AnalyticsTable 15: Sustainability and ESG Supply Chain Metrics

Table 1: Inventory Efficiency Metrics

The most fundamental inventory KPIs tell you how fast stock moves, how long it sits, and how efficiently capital is deployed — they form the baseline for every inventory optimization effort.

Metric	Example	Description
Inventory Turnover Ratio	$\text{Turnover} = \frac{\text{COGS}}{\text{Avg Inventory}}$ e.g., $\frac{2{,}000{,}000}{400{,}000} = 5$ turns/yr	• Measures how many times stock is sold and replaced per period • higher turns = faster-moving inventory but risks stockouts if pushed too high
Days on Hand (DOH)	$\text{DOH} = \frac{\text{Avg Inventory}}{\text{COGS}/365}$ e.g., $\frac{400{,}000}{5{,}479} \approx 73$ days	• Also called Days Sales of Inventory (DSI) • measures how many days inventory lasts before sell-through • target 30–60 days in most ecommerce contexts
Weeks on Hand (WOH)	$\text{WOH} = \frac{\text{Avg Inventory}}{\text{COGS}/52}$	• Same concept as DOH expressed in weeks • high WOH signals slow movement, low WOH signals lean stock
Stock-to-Sales Ratio	$\text{S:S} = \frac{\$ \text{Inventory Value}}{$\text{Sales Value}}$	• Broad indicator of stocking efficiency • used to adjust purchasing to maintain target margins.
Sell-Through Rate	$\text{STR} = \frac{\text{Units Sold}}{\text{Units Received}} \times 100$ e.g., $\frac{800}{1{,}000} = 80\%$	• Compares units sold to units received • low rates indicate slow-moving SKUs needing markdown or rebalancing

Table 1: Inventory Efficiency Metrics

The most fundamental inventory KPIs tell you how fast stock moves, how long it sits, and how efficiently capital is deployed — they form the baseline for every inventory optimization effort.

Metric	Example	Description
Inventory Turnover Ratio	$\text{Turnover} = \frac{\text{COGS}}{\text{Avg Inventory}}$ e.g., $\frac{2{,}000{,}000}{400{,}000} = 5$ turns/yr	• Measures how many times stock is sold and replaced per period • higher turns = faster-moving inventory but risks stockouts if pushed too high
Days on Hand (DOH)	$\text{DOH} = \frac{\text{Avg Inventory}}{\text{COGS}/365}$ e.g., $\frac{400{,}000}{5{,}479} \approx 73$ days	• Also called Days Sales of Inventory (DSI) • measures how many days inventory lasts before sell-through • target 30–60 days in most ecommerce contexts
Weeks on Hand (WOH)	$\text{WOH} = \frac{\text{Avg Inventory}}{\text{COGS}/52}$	• Same concept as DOH expressed in weeks • high WOH signals slow movement, low WOH signals lean stock
Stock-to-Sales Ratio	$\text{S:S} = \frac{\$ \text{Inventory Value}}{$\text{Sales Value}}$	• Broad indicator of stocking efficiency • used to adjust purchasing to maintain target margins.
Sell-Through Rate	$\text{STR} = \frac{\text{Units Sold}}{\text{Units Received}} \times 100$ e.g., $\frac{800}{1{,}000} = 80\%$	• Compares units sold to units received • low rates indicate slow-moving SKUs needing markdown or rebalancing