Can you cut inventory without hurting service levels?

Yes, when the cut is selective rather than across the board. The inventory that can leave without consequence is blind inventory: cover placed by habit on stable or low-impact references. Removing it frees cash and leaves availability untouched. Magotteaux, an industrial manufacturer, reduced inventory value by 13% and inventory coverage by 22% while cutting stockouts by 8%, because it targeted the wrong inventory specifically. Pooling cover with multi-echelon inventory optimization is one of the levers that makes this possible.

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