The chief executive officer (CEO) of Cobalt Inc. just read an article written by a business professor at Harvard University describing the benefits of the lean philosophy. The CEO issued the following statement after reading the article:

This company will become a lean manufacturing company. Presently, we have too much inventory. To become lean, we need to eliminate the excess inventory. Therefore, I want all employees to begin reducing inventories until we make products “just in time. ” Thank you for your cooperation. How would you respond to the CEO’s statement?