> If the company receives orders for an unusually large number of a component, such as a certain kind of Pentium 4 chip, Dell goes on red alert, rushing to wrin

> If the company receives orders for an unusually large number of a component, such as a certain kind of Pentium 4 chip, Dell goes on red alert, rushing to wring out emergency shipments from suppliers. > If the components are selling too fast, executives can instruct Dell's Web site administrators to offer customers a deal--a discount on a better component or, in dire emergencies, a free upgrade. These are the vital parts - if you have no buffer to handle irregularities, how do you handle them? In Dell's case, it's (presumably) paying extra to get emergency shipments and losing some revenue via discounts to adjust demand, and those situational costs are (presumably) worth the general case improvement. If the math works, great! Neat! Inspirational, even. I think some people were inspired who didn't consider the math for their industries though.