Finance rarely finds out about a bad inventory number from the inventory system. They find out from a purchase order that shouldn't have been necessary.
02 · Where the waste hides
Where the waste actually hides
It's hardware logged under the wrong model or spec. It's an asset marked retired that's quietly still drawing power. It's a rack the record calls full, sitting two-thirds empty.
Key figure · utilization
60%
utilization is a common real number teams find in racks logged as “full†on paper.
03 · What this looks like in practice
What this looks like in practice
A team requests new servers because the record shows every rack at capacity. A physical sweep turns up open slots the record never accounted for, and the purchase order that was about to go out gets quietly rewritten.
04 · Catching it early
Catching it before it hits the budget
Routine sweeps keep the capacity numbers honest before the purchase order gets written, which is the only point in the process where catching the gap actually saves the money.