Stockout risk is the number of items that have fallen below their reorder point — the level at which you should be buying more, not the level at which you have run out.
Why the count is worth a number of its own
A stockout does not announce itself as a stockout. It arrives as a job that could not be finished, a customer told somebody will come back Thursday, and a second visit that costs more than the margin on the first.
By the time it is visible in that form, it has already cost the money. The count is the version you can act on, and it is available days earlier.
What it costs
A missing part on a service call is the most expensive small failure in the trade. It converts a completed job into a multi-visit job, spending drive time, a schedule slot and the customer's patience — none of which are recoverable.
Against that, the carrying cost of holding one more of a fast-moving part is small.
Setting reorder points
The point should account for how long the supplier takes, not just how fast you use the item. A part that takes a week to arrive needs a reorder point a week's usage higher than one available the same day.
Seasonal parts need seasonal points. A reorder level that is right in March is wrong in July for anything weather-driven, and the failure will happen in exactly the week you can least afford it.
The balance
Stockout risk and dead stock pull in opposite directions, and the resolution is not a compromise across the whole holding — it is per part. Stock the fast movers deeply and the rare ones barely, rather than applying one policy to everything.
Available where inventory tracking is enabled for your workspace.