
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
A carpenter wants to cut a wooden cube with a side length of 3 inches into 27 smaller cubes with a side length of 1 inch each. The question is: "What is the minimum number of cuts required if the pieces can be rearranged arbitrarily during the cutting process, given that the carpenter can make 6 cuts to split the cube into smaller cubes while keeping the pieces together so they don't fall apart?"

Given that without rearranging the pieces, the minimum number of cuts would be 6 because each face needs to be cut to separate the inner cube, what is the minimum number of cuts required if the inner cube is missing and pieces can be rearranged arbitrarily during the process?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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