Lean manufacturing isn't just about minimizing book inventory and cash tied in inventory. It helps keep production flexible and responsive, and helps identify

Lean manufacturing isn't just about minimizing book inventory and cash tied in inventory. It helps keep production flexible and responsive, and helps identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. And it reduces risk -- a car manufacturer holding several months of chips is going to lose that investment every time its chip stock gets obsoleted. I expect that increasing buffers of material work in progress to levels indifferent to the current mess would be very expensive, very risky and have all sorts of secondary effects.