Some Thoughts on Logistics Policy and Strategies: Management Challenges for the 1980s

During the past decade, a number of important forces have converged on US management thinking and practice. These forces have led to an evolution in management direction that is quietly changing the face of a significant range of purchasing, manufacturing, and distribution systems. For the past 30 years the strategy of choice has been to use inventory to solve all of the problems facing the business firm. Inventory was used as a substitute for forecasting, as a balm for uncertainty in the marketplace, as a competitive tactic — in short, as a panacea for whatever ailed the business firm. Several generations of managers have grown up learning this philosophy and the magic that could be wrought with enough inventory.