In practice,manufacturing lot size economics cannot be ignored.The challenge is to quantify cost trade-offs between procurement,manufacturing,and logistics.At this point,it is sufficient to understand that the trade-off is between the cost and risk associated with anticipatory manufacturing and the loss of economy of scale resulting from introducing flexible procedures.Manufacturing lot size reduction requires a trade-off between line setup,switchover,and associated procurement cxpense balanced against cost and risk associated with stockpiling finished inventory.In the traditional functional style of management,manufacturing schedules were established to realize the lowest unit cost of production.From an integrative management perspective,the goal is to achieve desired customer satisfaction at the lowest total cost.This may require manufacturing postponement at some per-unit-cost sacrifice to achieve overall supply chain efficiency.