Inventory Products Ordered Book Paid Customer Wait Talking

Having a lot of inventory can be a very expensive, "risky" (with a lot of potential problems) "business practice" (a way of doing business). Most businesses are always trying to find ways to "reduce" (make smaller) the inventory that they have "on hand" (in storage; available).

One way to reduce inventory is to not create products until customers have already ordered them. For example, many book publishers now use "print-on-demand" technology where they print a copy of a book only after it has been ordered and paid for by a customer. The customer might have to wait a little longer to receive the book, but the company doesn't need to worry about having printed too many copies of a book that doesn't sell very well.

Other companies have "build-to-order" or "made-to-order" products that they create only after the customer has ordered and paid for something. Airplane "manufacturers" (makers) are a good example of this. Building an airplane is extremely expensive, so companies don't want to build many airplanes and then try to find buyers for them. Instead, they wait until a customer orders and pays for a plane, and then they build the plane to meet that customer's "specifications" (details about what the product should have or how it should appear).

These types of products can be "customized" (made differently for each customer). Customers can choose the color, size, "features" (things that a product has or can do), and more. This makes the products more attractive to the customers, who are then willing to wait a little while for their customized product to arrive after they have paid for it.