Fill rate
Reviewed by Dasha ShakovVP Marketing, Proton
Updated
What is fill rate?
Fill rate is the percentage of ordered goods a distributor ships straight from its shelves on the first delivery, before any backorders arrive.
How it works
It is reported in three versions: by units (units shipped ÷ units ordered), by lines (order lines shipped complete ÷ lines ordered) and by orders (orders shipped complete ÷ orders received). One short line makes a whole order count as unfilled, so the three versions drift apart on multi-line orders. Many distributors leave non-stock and special-order lines out. In the example below, the 95% comes from adding up every unit first, not from averaging the line percentages.
Some distributors also track how much shipped complete once backorders came in, which can only match or beat the first-shipment figure. OTIF adds the delivery date to the test, and service level is the in-stock probability planners aim for when setting safety stock.
Fill rate example
A contractor orders 200 connectors, 100 wire nuts, 20 breakers and one special-order panel. The panel is excluded. Everything else ships except 15 of the breakers, so units are 305 of 320 (95%), lines are 2 of 3 (67%), and the order counts as 0% filled.
Related terms
- On-time in-full (OTIF)On-time in-full (OTIF) is the percentage of orders delivered both complete and within the agreed delivery window.
- Service levelService level, in inventory planning, is the target probability that an item will not run out before its next replenishment arrives.
- BackorderA backorder is the quantity on a customer’s order that a distributor has agreed to supply but can’t ship yet, kept open until stock arrives.
- StockoutA stockout is a situation in which a distributor has none of an item available to sell when a customer wants it.
- Partial shipmentA partial shipment is a delivery that includes only part of an order, with the rest shipped later once it is available.
