Manufacturers build a lot of product at once because they have long set-up times on equipment, and they don't want to perform setups more often than they need to. Once they have finished goods on hand, they wait for their customers to deplete it, which leads to high inventory levels and cash-flow problems. Fortunately, you can take several steps to get control of your inventory and optimize your manufacturing systems so you can satisfy customer demand as profitably as possible, experts say. One way is to proactively enhance your relationships with your customers so you can work closer to the rate of demand. You can find documented setup reduction techniques that a manufacturing consultant could help your company implement.
Many manufacturers hold two buckets of inventory for a finished good.
When one is empty, the other is pulled from while the empty bucket is replenished. The size of the buckets depends on the level of demand. They could approach their customers with the lean-manufacturing ideas and see if they are interested in helping or being involved. Ask our small-business experts. Because of the volume of mail, we won't be able to respond to all questions personally.