Customers love choice, but they can be overwhelmed by too much of it. Companies like Dell, Gateway, and Weyerhaeuser use choiceboards to manage demand and to balance demand with supply. Dell became famous for this approach long before the Web became as important as it is today. For years, Dell's telephone reps would find out right away if the company was running low on, say, a specific memory module. Whether buyers go online, call Gateway's toll-free order number, or walk into a Gateway Country store, they will encounter a choiceboard that offers controlled choices and that feeds information into Gateway's fulfillment infrastructure.
Speed means instant gratification and high-velocity response.
It can mean receiving an urgent document overnight, or settling an insurance claim right at the accident scene. It can also mean bringing new fashions to store shelves within a week of their being designed. That's why we find Zara, a trendy Spanish clothing retailer, so exciting. The apparel industry is notorious for building up buffer inventories everywhere, because it has to predict fashion swings months before clothes hit store shelves. A wrong guess can mean a strategic disaster.