Thorborg also learned that the inventory of special steel has 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 of three months the plant would not be operating at capacity, during slack periods, the company had a policy of employing excess labor (at about 70 percent 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 ring during this period.