Inventory is all the money the organization spends in turning materials into
throughput. In operational terms, inventory is money invested in anything that it intends
to sell and, thus, expands the traditional definition to include assets such as facilities,
equipment (which are eventually sold at the end of their useful lives), fixtures,
and computers. In the TOC world, inventory is the money spent on items that do not
have to be immediately expensed. Thus, inventory represents the money tied up inside
the organization