The cash trapped in the wrong inventory. Released through the operating cadence that demand, supply, and capacity run to.
Balance inventory risk and service levels. Supply chain visibility. Network optimization. The capability where most operations leave the most working capital on the table.
Inventory is the working capital lever where structural cross-function alignment lives. Inventory belongs to supply chain on paper; the inventory the operation actually carries belongs to the operating cadence between sales, supply, finance, and operations. Proudfoot installs the operating discipline that lets the CFO see the cash trapped in inventory and that lets the operation release it without compromising service.
Where inventory leaks.
Inventory leaks at 3 points. The risk-and-service balance is held by safety stock that absorbs forecast variability rather than by structural alignment between demand, supply, and capacity. The supply chain visibility is partial; the operation cannot see ahead in the chain to make decisions inside the lead-time window. The network is sized against legacy cost-to-serve assumptions that no longer match operating reality.
The structural intervention sizes inventory against the actual demand and supply variability, lifts visibility across the chain, and rebuilds the network footprint against operating reality. The discipline is operational; the result is working capital released and service levels held.
Three sub-capabilities. One inventory discipline.
Balance inventory risk and service levels
Inventory categorisation by criticality, by lead time, by demand pattern; safety stock sized against the actual variability not the legacy assumption; service levels held to the right band per category.
Supply chain visibility
End-to-end visibility into the chain inside the operation’s decision horizon. Suppliers, transport, warehousing, distribution, customers. The visibility makes the operating cadence possible.
Network optimisation
Distribution and warehousing footprint sized against operating reality. Cost-to-serve calculated structurally; flow patterns rationalised; consolidation where the operating reality permits.
Where inventory discipline runs.
Most visible across:
- Mining: spare parts inventory, critical-spares strategy, working capital deployed against operating risk.
- Manufacturing: multi-site inventory, critical components, raw materials inventory.
- Food and Beverage: finished goods inventory across CPG, cold chain, ingredients.
- Aerospace and Defence: MRO spare parts, program inventory, certification-bound holdings.
- Automotive: multi-tier supply chain inventory, program launch inventory.
- Cement and Building Materials: finished goods at the plant, regional distribution.
Cross-functional, with Asset Management on critical spares.
Optimize Inventory is structurally cross-functional.
Asset Management
Critical spares strategy and stocking policy against asset reliability profile.
Production
Raw materials and work-in-process inventory inside the production operating cadence.
The Asset Management function carries critical spares inventory; the Production function carries raw materials and work-in-process; the commercial function carries finished goods.
The methodology backbone.
The Proudfoot System runs the engagement across 5 phases and 86 steps. The Proudfoot MOS (the 6+4 Element Framework) holds the operating cadence the inventory discipline runs against; the 8 Active Management Behaviours (8AMBs) are the supervisory behaviors; Aerial Mapping structures the executive interview at engagement entry across supply chain, finance, and operations; MOS Critic scores the operating system.
The full methodology lives on the methodology page.
What it looks like when it lands.
$9.3m released from working capital by re-engineering the supply chain across mining, engineering, and finance.
21% reduction in lead times across the supply chain. Strategic supplier partnerships, customs and bonded-warehouse coordination, single central plan for 3 mines.
Multi-site inventory rationalised across an industrial machinery operation.
Critical-component stocking policy aligned to demand and lead-time variability; working capital released without service-level compromise.
MRO spare parts strategy revised against certification-bound criticality and supplier reality.
Inventory released from non-critical holdings; service levels held on critical-asset register.
Talk to our inventory team.
Inventory and supply chain across complex operations.
Manufacturing inventory and supply chain.
Heavy industry and mining inventory and critical spares.
Five days on the working capital question.
Two senior Proudfoot operators on the priority site for five working days. Proudfoot AI reading the inventory data, the supply chain patterns, and the corpus first, remotely. MOS Critic on the operating cadence; structured executive interviews across supply chain, finance, and operations; quantified opportunity hypothesis sized to the inventory lever.