Here, the warehouse is supposed to make up for the disadvantage of having a manufacturing lead-time. It also means the factory managers can more comfortably plan their production schedules, since they only need to stock that thick wall (the warehouse) between itself and its customer. There is a downside to this scheme, though. The thicker the warehouse wall becomes, the less able the factory is to respond quickly to market changes. That slow response becomes a serious flew in the factory's character. Production gets stuck in a slow, predictable rut.