College

If I need to keep 12 boxes of cookies on the table at all times, they have a shelf life of five days, and I sell 7 boxes a week, how many boxes do I need to keep on hand for backstock?

Answer :

The number of boxes that are needed to be kept on hand can be found to be 7 boxes for backstock.

Since you need to keep 12 boxes on the table and you sell 7 boxes per week, you need to ensure you have enough boxes to replenish the 12 boxes on the table every 5 days.

Since you sell 7 boxes a week, you sell approximately 1 box per day (7 boxes/7 days).

Over 5 days, you would sell about 5 boxes (1 box/day * 5 days).

To maintain the 12-box inventory on the table, you would need to replace those 5 boxes during the 5-day period.

A safe approach would be to keep an additional buffer of about 2 days' worth of sales. The number of boxes needed is therefore:

= 5 boxes + 2 additional

= 7 boxes