Certainly, it is very important that companies set targets for sales totals, inventory turnover, and other important business performance measures. However, when companies start entrusting these figures to provide them with a prescription for appropriate inventory, it is very easy for them to adopt an attitude of trying to uphold the validity of the figures for the sake of "stability" and at the expense of actual conditionsใ
Rather than hoping to banish the term "appropriate inventory," I would only hope everyone remembers that the only really appropriate inventory is zero inventory.
Lesson 17. The Appropriate Inventory is Zero Inventory
Estimated Lead-Time and Real Lead-Time
Customers are very picky people. They tend to suddenly want products that they never even bothered to look at before. And when they want them, they want them now.
Fashion wear is a prime example of this. Fashion boutiques regularly report cases where some outfit that has stood virtually unnoticed in the window for weeks suddenly starts catching shoppers' interest. Even in the world of food, there is the old saying, "The food that tastes best is whatever you want to eat at the time.