# WoN Mappings — Capital and Inventory

Generated from: `artifacts/sources/capital-and-inventory.md`

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# Just-in-Time Inventory → Circulating Capital

## Supply Chain Entity

Just-in-Time Inventory

## WoN Entity

Circulating Capital

## Mapping Rationale

Smith defines circulating capital as the component of capital consumed
each productive cycle that yields its return only by changing hands —
contrasted with fixed capital (durable plant and equipment). He argues
that the faster circulating capital turns over, the more productive output
can be generated from a given capital stock. JIT inventory management is
an explicit strategy to maximise the velocity of the circulating capital
cycle by minimising the time capital spends frozen as inventory. The
financial logic is identical: reduce dwell time, increase velocity,
extract more productive output per unit of capital employed.

## Conceptual Continuity

Strong — JIT is Smith's circulating capital theory operationalised as an
inventory management practice. The mechanism (faster turnover of working
capital) and the goal (higher productive output per unit of capital) are
the same; only the technological form differs.

## VSM Inheritance

Just-in-Time Inventory inherits S1/S3 via Circulating Capital (operational
resource; managed for return velocity through S3 capital management policy).

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# Safety Stock → Accumulation of Stock

## Supply Chain Entity

Safety Stock

## WoN Entity

Accumulation of Stock

## Mapping Rationale

Smith describes stock accumulation as a prerequisite for economic activity:
before workers can be employed in specialised production, the employer must
have accumulated sufficient stock to sustain them while production is
in progress — before any output can be sold. Safety stock is a modern
instantiation of this logic: productive continuity requires holding a
buffer of stock to absorb demand and supply variability, just as Smith's
producer needed reserves before specialising. Both forms of stock are
held not for immediate productive use but as insurance against disruption
to continuous operations. The trade-off Smith identifies — between
accumulating stock and deploying it productively — is exactly the safety
stock optimisation problem.

## Conceptual Continuity

Moderate — The reserve function is shared, but Smith's accumulation of
stock is primarily an enabling condition for production while safety stock
is an operational buffer. The temporal purpose differs (enabling new
activity vs. maintaining existing activity), though the economic logic
(idle capital as insurance against continuity risk) is the same.

## VSM Inheritance

Safety Stock inherits S3 via Accumulation of Stock (capital management
decision about how much reserve to hold against operational risk).
