Notes
Inventory, forecasting, and distribution systems
Short pieces written from the buyer's side of the desk.
July 29, 2026
When a Stockout Is the Right Call
Distribution culture treats every empty bin as a failure. But chasing 100% availability on the C and D tail is how balance sheets drown — some stockouts are the policy working.
July 29, 2026
Min/Max Is Not a Strategy
Static reorder points don't fail loudly. They rot — quietly drifting away from reality until the buyer is expediting A items while the racks fill with C items nobody's ordered in a year.
July 29, 2026
A Reliable 21 Days Beats a Volatile 10
Buyers negotiate hard for shorter lead times and barely track variability — but it's the variance, not the length, that sets your safety stock and causes your stockouts.
July 29, 2026
Dead Stock Is a Working-Capital Problem, Not a Warehouse Problem
As long as dead stock is measured in pallets and bin locations, nobody with budget authority will care. Price it as trapped capital and the conversation changes in one meeting.
July 29, 2026
ABC Classification Needs Two Axes
Rank items by one number and you'll manage half your inventory wrong. Usage and dollars disagree constantly — and the items where they disagree are exactly the ones that need different handling.
July 28, 2026
Safety Stock Is a Policy Decision, Not a Formula
The formula tells you how much buffer buys a given service level. It can't tell you which items deserve one — that's a business decision wearing a math costume.