The reduction in inventory also contributed to a steady increase in cash reserve and reduced storage cost and lowered component value depreciation, which in turn helped to improve margin. Comments from July 20th 98. Updated Apple improved its inventory turn rate from 13 to 22 in Q3 98. An all time high and among the highest in the computer industry. Several readers have asked what that means.
Inventory turn is a measurement of production efficiency.
Imagine that a company's production line is a pipeline. On the other hand, a company with 26 inventory turns would take just 2 weeks. Clearly the latter of the two is more desirable. Higher inventory turn means lower total in-house inventory and shorter response time to changes in market demand. During the conference call, Apple said it intends to further improve inventory turn rate.