Thorborg also learned that the inventory of special steel had cost $110,900 and represented enough material to produce approximately 34,500 rings. Assuming that sales continued at the current rate of 690 rings per week, without any further production, some 15,100 finished rings would be left on hand by mid-September. Thorborg then recalled that during the next two orthree months the plant would not be operating at capacity; during slack periods, the company had a policy of employing excess labor (at about 70% of regular wages) on various make-work projects rather than laying workers off. He wondered if it would be a good idea to use some of this labor to convert the steel inventory into rings during this period.