Cut Buffer, Free Cash

8 weeks of safety stock against 9 days of actual variability. That's $22K of fear sitting on a shelf. I asked them, why 8 weeks? And they said, because we stocked out once 2 years ago, one time, and they've been overordering ever since. So I asked the next question, what's your actual variability? What's the real swing in your demand? They said, I don't know. Of course they didn't, because they never looked. We pulled the data. Worst case scenario, actual worst case was a 9-day swing. They were holding 56 days of buffer against 9 days of risk. That's not planning, that's trauma-based inventory management. We reduced safety stock to 3 weeks, still conservative, still more than they needed, but $22K freed because we replaced a feeling with a number. So what is your safety stock based on right now? A spreadsheet or a stacked-out experience happened 2 years ago? Pull the data, find your actual variability. $22K freed by replacing fear with data. That's the fix.