Rainy-Season Wiper Blade Inventory: Plan by Market, Not One Calendar
“Order before the rain starts” leaves a distributor with two unanswered questions: which blades, and how many? A seasonal forecast is only useful when someone can turn it into an order line.
Try the calculation on one reference
Here is a worked example using hypothetical quantities. A distributor expects demand for 240 individual blades during the period before its next replenishment. There are 80 on the shelf. An incoming shipment contains another 100. On paper, the shortage is 60 blades.
Before ordering those 60, check the incoming shipment. Suppose 20 blades use a connector that has not been approved for this application. Those 20 cannot cover the demand in the worksheet. The shortage is now 80.
This is why a warehouse total is a poor starting point. A blade in the wrong configuration is stock, but it is not stock that fills this order.
What belongs in the worksheet?
Give each line a model reference, confirmed length and unit, connector, application and selling unit. Count usable stock, confirmed incoming stock and expected demand against that same identity. Keep damaged packs and unresolved returns off the usable-stock figure.
Then ask where the demand estimate came from. Last season's sales are a starting point, but check the days when that reference was out of stock. Also check whether a large customer has joined or left. The worksheet should show the adjustment and its reason, so the next buyer can question it.
Set the receiving date with the customer
A Google Trends chart cannot supply that date. It reports relative search interest for the terms, country and period selected. A high point is not a quantity of blades sold, and charts for separate countries do not share an absolute scale.
Ask the distributor when it needs saleable stock available. Use the quoted packing and transport arrangements to work back from that date. If the route or specification is unresolved, leave the purchasing deadline provisional. Do this separately for each destination rather than applying one rainy-season calendar to the United States, Mexico and Brazil.