Down with inventory! Do away with inventory! So cry the advocates of the Just‐in‐Time doctrine—a doctrine that holds that inventory by nature is idle and wasteful and by reason is an encumbrance on the operations and finances of an organization. Their denouncements of both intentional and...

Generic product offerings in a boundaryless competitive environment do not support economic viability. Time‐based dimensions of a product are becoming an increasingly important component in assessing strategic advantage. A generalized framework is provided for analyzing product environments...