“My goal is to reduce inventory,” Bruce explained.
“What is the Time Span of your goal?” I asked. “You have to reduce inventory. By how much and by when?”
“Good question. All the managers just got this email from our corporate office. We need to take a hard look and get our inventories down.”
“So, tell me, if you had to reduce your inventory 30 percent by the end of next week, would that be different than if you had to reduce inventory by the end of May?”
Bruce chuckled. “Of course. If we had to reduce inventory by next week, I would put the brakes on hard. Slash pricing and blow this stuff out of here, just some hard nosed, tactical stuff.”
“And what would be your decisions if the Time Span was end of May?”
Hopefully Bruce knowing the time span and goal can wean down his inventory to reach the desired goal.
Eli Goldratt talked about reducing inventory level in his novel The Goal -looking at the opening word made me think about this novel. Reading this novel led me to the conclusion that he was talking about stratum 3 capability, and helping the subordinate characters (with stratum 2 capability) on the steps of continuous improvement. Aligned with the story, it will be helpful if Bruce is in his Stratum 3 capability. Though the target is next week, it doesn’t mean that Bruce is in Stratum 1 capability. I believe if he were in stratum 3 capability, he will feel the task much easier for him.