1. Use the information above to evaluate the current situation.

Randy Smith was very proud of his new position as inventory control manager for the Johnson Trinket Company. His primary responsibility had been fairly clearly defined: Maintain an inventory level in the warehouse that ensures that production will not run out of stock, yet also maintain an inventory level that will minimize inventory holding and control costs. Since Randy had recently had a course in materials management, he knew an approach that should help him. He decided to make a list of inventory items in one small section of the warehouse to see if he could develop a good plan for inventory control. If it worked in the one small section, he could expand it to the rest of the more than 30,000 part numbers in the warehouse.