Real Time Strategy: The End of Inventory?

Everyone is aware of the radical shift—pioneered by the Japanese in the 1970s—from “just in case” (safety stock) inventory philosophy to “just in time.” But new competitive realities are pushing the inventory ante up at an alarming rate. Today's strategic imperative goes beyond JIT to “reduce inventories to zero” or to coin a new acronym, JAZ—“just about zero.”