Lesson 15. Inventory Is the Opium of the Factory
Inventory and Finance
Just about everything under the sun has some sort of function.
One gizmo’s function is to take in coins and dole out
refreshments, while another’s is to conduct electricity and
convert it into light. Everything that has a function requires
some kind of input and produces some kind of output. In
many cases, that output becomes some other thing’s input.
The same principle can be seen at work in companies. In
the case of manufacturing companies, they acquire capital,
lay in stocks of materials, turn these materials into products,
and then sell the products to acquire, among other things,
recyclable capital.
We find a similar situation when we switch from managing
materials to managing money—which many regard as the
pivotal aspect of company management. Put very briefly, the
function of finance management is to procure and operate
capital. Capital procurement is the input and capital operation
is the output.
Now we are ready to ask, “What is inventory’s role
within the context of this money-recycling activity we call
finance management?”
Please look at the balance sheet shown in Figure 2.22. The
right side of the balance sheet is the credit side, which lists
liabilities and shareholders’ equity. The left side is the assets
side. Usually, the capital procurement figures are listed in the
liabilities section while the operating figures are listed in the
assets section.
In the balance sheet shown in the figure, the assets and
liabilities are listed in ascending order of “fluidity.” To make
this fluidity a little easier to grasp, we added a downward
arrow and the term “cash-convertible” next to the credit side.
This cash-convertible arrow indicates that the lower an item is
positioned on the assets list, the easier that item is to convert
into cash.
As we can see in the balance sheet, inventory items such
as finished goods, work-in-process, and materials are positioned
within the more cash-convertible category of “current
assets.” However, they are not as cash-convertible as other
items in that category, such as cash, notes receivable, and