ABSTRACT
We have stated throughout the text that it is important to think of manufacturing and services as a total offering to customers simply because wonderful services without excellent products will count for nothing; conversely, excellent products without good service is also not acceptable for customers. When problems occur in the interface between the two, the ‘moment of truth’ that we discussed in Chapter 1 becomes a major disappointment, as shown in the following mini-case.
Managing inventory successfully is not about technical solutions; rather a key factor to bear in mind with inventory management is that much of it is service related – it has to do with managing relationships throughout the supply network (which we explore further in Chapter 6) and this is fully linked to service operations.
