Purpose – This paper is a thought experiment that investigates the possibilities of moving from the typical “just-in-case” model of managing legacy collections of printed monographs to a centralised “just-in-time” model. Design/methodology/approach – Reliable published statistical...

Buyers for a large international catalogue retailer visit European and Asian wholesale suppliers to order goods for the coming retail season. A single large warehouse stores all the goods purchased. The focus of this paper is on the interaction between the buyers' ordering system and warehouse...