War-game a safety stock rule by proving each buffer class has a named owner, a measured age-out, and a reverse path before draft floors start governing every replenishment claim.
Safety stock rules fail when "buffer" means a status without a decision artifact, when teams dual-count a draft floor as both approved and live, and when high-risk SKUs still pin to one thin planner because the inventory is incomplete. The review needs one written inventory of buffer classes, one owner who can deny a risky shortcut, and a documented consequence when a failed replenishment ages past the deadline.
Name the rule under fire
State which SKUs the rule covers, the effective date, which service levels change, how floors are versioned, and what happens to orders already in flight. Name the warehouses that feel it first and the customer promises that depend on coherent availability. If the memo mixes a safety stock rule with a warehouse slotting cut and a stockout script, split them. A war game needs one move under fire at a time.
Write the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new. Also write the reverse criteria: the missed SKU, coverage gap, or customer deadline that would force a rule rollback within a stated window.
Who must sit
- Inventory ops. Buffer timing, age-out math, and what the stock forecast hides if exceptions soften after the policy.
- Planning. Lead-time lag, dual-counted floors, and the message that would leave orphan SKUs open past lock.
- Warehouse ops. Pick capacity, slotting load, and relationship damage with carriers when buffers jump overnight.
- Finance. Working-capital load, forecast promises that break in process, and the first ninety days of thicker inventory after a soft floor.
- Skeptic. The claim that looks strongest and is least sourced.
Attach the same source pack to every seat: open SKUs, buffers in flight, protected service levels, coverage commitments, and the age-out policy you actually intend to use. Secret data for one seat creates fake agreement.
Run the private fire
Feed Pingpong the rule memo, the buffer exhibits, and the seating briefs. First pass steelmans the rule. Later passes attack from inventory, planning, warehouse, and finance seats. Final pass turns surviving objections into phased floor rules, mitigations, or a changed recommendation. Agreement across passes is not proof. Keep the objections that still have evidence gaps.
Pair with the inventory ops lead seat, a SKU rationalization review, a warehouse slotting cut, and a stockout comms script stress test. More operating decisions live in the war-game decisions hub.
Ship the rule only when approved and blocked buffer labels can be reproduced from stored inventory exports without a verbal override.