The following reasons have been offered for holding inventories:
a. To balance ordering or setup costs and carrying costs
b. To satisfy customer demand (e.g., meet delivery dates)
c. To avoid shutting down manufacturing facilities because of:
(1) Machine failure
(2) Defective parts
(3) Unavailable parts
d. Unreliable production processes
e. To take advantage of discounts
f. To hedge against future price increases
Required:
Form groups of three to five. Each of the groups will choose one of the letters, “a” through “f,” corresponding to the above reasons for holding inventory. No group can choose a letter chosen by another group until all the letters are used. The letter selection process ends when each group has at least one letter. Each group will determine how the JIT approach responds to their designated reason(s) for holding inventory. The groups will then share their answers with the other groups.