DEPENDENCE ON NEW SYSTEMS Over the long term, FedEx was placing its biggest bets on the build-to-order revolution under way in manufacturing, epitomized by Dell Computer. Dell did not build a.zillion identical computer's, flooded them out to retailers, and hoped customers would like what they saw. It waited until it had your customer order(and your money), then ordered components from suppliers and assembled the parts. Some components, like the monitor or speakers, might be sent directly from the supplier to your home(never passing through Dell) and arrived on your doorstep at the same time as everything else. That might sound like old news. Just in time inventory and delivery systems that were popularized by the Japanese in the 1970s and adopted by Western corporations in the 1980s.