Question

what actions can be taken to improve product availability while reducing safety inventory

Answer 1

The concept of JIT (Just-In-time) may be used while reordering stocks, to improve product availability while reducing safety stock level.

In JIT, the frequency of stock orders will go up while the quantity per order will be reduced. Orders are placed in such a way that, just the right quantity of stocks arrive at the right time. By the time these stocks are about to get exhausted, the next consignment will be received. In this way, the stock holding is drastically reduced.

But this kind of ordering and inventory management requires a very efficient logistics management, failing which there will be stock outage.