Fill rate

Quantity shipped over quantity ordered, measured at unit, line or order level.

DefinitionQuantity shipped over quantity ordered, measured at unit, line or order level.

Fill rate tests quantity only. Case or unit fill is units shipped over units ordered and is the highest of the three. Line fill is lines shipped complete over lines ordered. Order fill is orders shipped complete over orders and is the lowest, because one short line fails the order. A supplier reporting case fill and a customer scoring order fill are describing the same deliveries from opposite ends. See OTIF versus fill rate versus on-time delivery.

How it is computed

Quantity shipped divided by quantity ordered, at unit level, line level and order level, stated which.

Example

Ten lines ordering 1,000 units shipped 890: unit fill 89 percent. Eight lines were complete: line fill 80 percent. Two of four orders were complete: order fill 50 percent.

Where it goes wrong

The highest of the three reported, and the customer scoring the lowest.

Articles that use this term

Alternatives and comparisons · Distributors

How to choose analytics software for distributors: questions, data and traps

How distributors should choose analytics software: start from the questions, check the data you hold, ask vendors ten questions, avoid the traps.

24 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Supply chain

KPIs for supply chain teams: ten measures that matter, each with its formula and the export it comes from

The ten KPIs a supply chain function should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: supplier OTIF against each supplier's own baseline, lead time variability, customer OTIF under each customer's rule, forecast bias by SKU and site, inventory ageing, single-source exposure, days of cover against target, expedite cost, supplier deterioration watch, and cause of service misses. Also the three measures most teams miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.

17 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Supply chain

OTIF vs fill rate vs on-time delivery: what is the difference, and which one the customer scores

OTIF, fill rate and on-time delivery are three delivery measures that are reported as if they were one. On-time delivery tests the date only. Fill rate tests the quantity only, and comes in line, case and order versions. OTIF requires both on the same order. This page sets out the definitions, computes all of them on the same ten order lines, shows why OTIF is always the lowest, and explains which one a retailer's scorecard and chargebacks are based on.

17 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Distributors

Sales KPIs for wholesale distributors: ten measures that matter, each with its formula and the export it comes from

The ten sales KPIs a wholesale distributor should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: account coverage at cadence, dormant accounts by prior value, category share against similar customers, contribution after cost to serve, price realisation, average drop value, order channel mix, fill rate and lost lines, customer concentration, and new account activation. Also the three measures most distributors miss, the vanity figures to drop, the identity behind each table, and who should own what.

17 Sept 20265 min read How-to guides

The difference pages: twenty pairs of sales terms that get swapped, and the line between each

A hub for the comparison pages on this site: churn and dormancy, win rate and close rate, pipeline coverage and weighted pipeline, OTIF and fill rate, gross margin and contribution, KPI and metric, leading and lagging indicators, concentration ratio and Herfindahl index, share of wallet and market share, renewal and retention, and more. Each page gives both definitions, computes both on the same rows, and says which to use when. This page lists them with the one-line difference for each.

17 Sept 20264 min read